Daily Archives: March 1, 2026

Challenges, Happiness, Running

The bitch is BACK.

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I’m not sure whether this morning’s 6.6-mile Mother Road run in Albuquerque was spectacular or merely great, because the finish-line clock showed 1:18:xx as I crossed (I didn’t catch the seconds), but the event website showed my time as 1:24:00. I don’t know what caused the discrepancy, but either way, I am extremely pleased, because I went into this run with very low expectations and totally blew them out of the water.

Albuquerque is 1,300 feet higher than Tucumcari, and I’ve been training at a deliberately slow pace ever since I pushed myself too hard and ended up with an overtraining injury in January. Based on my training pace for the last four weeks, I figured I’d finish in just under 1:45 if the altitude didn’t kick my arse too hard. Assuming the clock was wrong and the website is right, I beat that estimate by 21 minutes, shaving 3:06 off my per-mile training pace while running at significantly higher altitude.

Y’all, that is insane.

My last 10K (6.2 miles) was 17 years and about 20 lbs. ago, and I finished it in 1:21:34, on hips that had not yet been subjected to COVID-related arthritis. My old, overweight, postmenopausal, arthritic, supposedly out-of-shape arse ran today’s 6.6-miler at a per-mile pace at least 15 seconds faster than I managed when I was 33.

The bitch is BACK.

Stuff that contributed:

  1. Improved pacing plan. The thinner air did make it harder to breathe, so instead of a 2,000:1,000 run-to-walk ratio, I shifted to a 1,500:500. (The numbers are steps; I don’t have a Garmin to monitor time or distance, so I just count steps instead.)
  2. Music. Accelerating with the motorcycle engine on “Bat Out of Hell” is just … *chef’s kiss*
  3. My treadmill. I’m about 99% sure the speedometer is reporting slower times and shorter distances than the belt is actually moving. I’ve suspected this for a while but assumed I was just out of shape and tiring easily; today proved otherwise.
  4. Better shoes. These Hokas are basically clouds with laces.

Can’t wait to see what happens at that half-marathon in Tulsa next month.

Emily