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Ok, so I have to admit: I kind of miss running in New York City.
Ann Arbor is pretty and there are country roads and river trails to run on. But it feels kinda lonely.
There's a point when you've been running for an hour and a half when it gets a little boring, and you're a little tired, and muscles are telling you that soon they will start actively protesting, and it seems completely sensible to stop at mile 10 of your 15-mile run. Anyplace I ran in NY, there were so many other people around me running and biking, and there was a sense of camaraderie that helped sustain me the longer I went. Also I think that the city is so large that you lose a sense of the distance you've run, which is psychologically useful for continuing on.

Anyway, a recap of the past week:
I was planning on a long run last Saturday, but I woke up to a torrential downpour that continued for a great deal of the day. After it let up a little, I went out for 8 miles, but it was very difficult to breathe as the humidity was still over 90%. Sunday it was still pouring, so I went to the gym with the goal of wearing myself out. It took half an hour on the bike, an hour on the elliptical, and half an hour on the treadmill.

Tuesday we were supposed to simulate a 4-mile race by warming up for a full mile and then trying to maintain an even pace at fairly high effort for 4 miles. This is straightforward in Central Park: the paths have been measured and so you know more or less where to go for what distance. Also, there are hills but most of them aren't particularly significant. Here, there are bigger hills and anywhere I went that would be safe in the evening involves crossing a lot of streets, which isn't conducive to a steady pace. So I went to the gym to use the treadmill. When I did the Run for Central Park in July, which was a 4-mile race, my pace was 10:47. So I figured ok, it's two months later and I'm stronger, so 10:40 should be completely reasonable. Right. After 2 miles I thought I was going to pass out. I'm sure a lot of it is the treadmill, which to me feels extremely unnatural in terms of constantly keeping up an exact pace, and again is psychologically difficult to stick with, but I was kind of frustrated. Again, this weekend, I went to do a 15-mile run and came home after 13. I think the fact that I'm not sleeping enough or drinking enough water is really catching up to me. I really need to make an effort to take care of myself.

One thing that was reassuring was all along I've been thinking I have to finish in five and a half hours in order to get the finishers' goodies (running shirt, Tiffany necklace). This is an average pace of 12:35. For shorter runs, this would be no problem at all. But once I get up over 10 miles, this was getting worrisome. Although I'd like first and foremost to just through the race, it would be painfully disappointing if I didn't get the bling, in part because of what it represents. I was looking at the website the other day though, and I think it's more like 6.5 hours. This is a 14:53 pace, which even if I end up walking a chunk of it, is still reasonable.