10 Miles in Hilton Head

Monday morning I was still in Hilton Head!  Greg had off Saturday through Monday, so I decided to take a day of leave from work on Monday so that we could go to Hilton Head together and not have to come back til Monday.

Before the weekend started, I'd picked Monday morning to be my long run day.  I knew Saturday wouldn't really work since we were driving to HHI that morning.  I wanted to have Sunday morning to eat breakfast with the family and not have it revolve around my run.  Monday was the logical choice, because my parents were headed to work early and Greg and I had all day to take our time heading back to Charlotte. 

I had almost two pieces of cinnamon raisin toast with crunchy peanut butter (couldn't quite finish), some coffee, and some water as my pre-run fuel.

(notice my parents have the same mugs as Greg and I!)

As I prepped my IPod, I realized I'd forgotten headphones! Eeeeek! Greg had some, and let me borrow his, thank god! Even though the scenery is beautiful and I could have run without music, 10 miles is a lot of miles (at least to me) to run alone with no music. I was glad to have the tunes to motivate me and keep me company.

It was chilly outside at the beginning of my run (which I started around 8-8:30am), and I debated about whether to wear long sleeves or not, but ultimately decided not to and was glad I didn't, because it warmed up as I got going.

My plan was to do a 5 mile loop, stop back at my parents' house for fuel/water, then do another 5 mile loop.

 I headed up the main road in my parents' plantation, past the clubhouse where Greg and I got married.

From there, I headed out to the bridges I was on with Greg and my mom the other day which lead over to a small island with trails.

 I LOVED running over the bridges overlooking the marsh.  I can't think of anywhere more gorgeous to run.

After the island, I took the bridge on the other side back to the mainland and went past the marina and pools. 

Around mile 3, my left knee was feeling kind of tight, so I stopped and stretched it for a minute and then it felt better and didn't bother me for the rest of the run.

From there, I took the path next to the main road back to my parents, and it was a pretty much perfect 5 mile loop.  

At my parents, I decided to try something new for mid-run fuel- a GU!  Jen, had given me this Vanilla Gingerbread flavored GU to try and I figured I'd bring it and try it.  Not bad!  I had that and downed some water and then headed out again.

The GU sat well in my stomach.  I think it's a win and I'll have to get more.

I debated mixing up the route for the second half, but I LOVED the route and liked that it was exactly 5 miles, so I opted to just run the same paths again.  

On the second half I brought some Luna Moons with me, and ate about 4 over the course of the 5 miles.  I also stopped in at the pavilion for a quick sip of water:

I finished my 10 miles in 1 hours and 40 minutes :)

Mile 1- 9:54
Mile 2- 10:24
Mile 3- 10:11
Mile 4- 10:09
Mile 5- 9:59
Mile 6- 9:46
Mile 7- 10:13
Mile 8- 10:07
Mile 9- 10:10
Mile 10- 9:51

It went pretty good!  My pace was fairly consistent as per usual.

The one thing that kind of sucked was that I had to sit in the car for 3+ hours on the ride home yesterday, which seemed to kind of bother my knees.  They are really tight and a little sore today, especially when I go up or down stairs.  I know I can do the half marathon without a huge problem in a couple weeks, but in thinking about a possible full marathon, the knee issue has me worried.  It seems that my knees are bothered by longer distances, and I'm wondering if I need to incorporate better strength exercises in my cross training workouts to help them, or if I need to be looking into knee sleeves for better knee support, or what.  I don't know that my knees can handle a full marathon at the stage they are at right now.  I think that would be REALLY tough on them.  :(  I'm going to have see how more of these long runs go and incorporate more icing, stretching, and strength training to see if it helps.

On a side note, on our way out of Hilton Head, Greg and I stopped at the outlets and I purchased some cool Nike running pants for the cooler weather!

I'm so glad I got to change up my running scenery.  Where's your favorite place to run?