Slow and steady

Yet another hot and humid day. It's a scorcher out there! Despite this, I was excited for my 10 mile run. Today was the first weekend of NYC Summer Streets. During Summer Streets, Park Ave is closed to traffic from 72nd St. all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge (no Park Ave does not run this whole way, it turns into Lafayette). This is a fantastic opportunity for walkers, runners, bikers, and generally anyone who prefers to be on the street without the threat of being run over by a taxi, to get out and about. I had plans to meet up with a co-worker's wife. After a bit of a snafu (the intersection we were supposed to meet at was literally in 2 places - grand central sits in the middle of Park Ave so in my opinion there's really 2 Park avenues) we found each other. And we were off! We ran together for the first 6 miles, chatting all along the way. We were running at a pretty slow pace, hence the ability to chit chat, but all the discussion made the time fly. After those first 6 miles we parted ways and I was left by myself for the final 4, without even any music to accompany me. These last 4 felt like they took twice as long as the first 6, but I finished all of them! And in this heat! It definitely was a LONG, slow run, but as I've said before, and will likely say many times again, my goal is simply to finish the marathon, so every long run is one step (or mile, really) closer to that goal. (And secretly I like to think that November will be about 30 degrees colder, which should help me speed up a bit!)