I was majorly lacking motivation on Saturday morning to get out and do my long run. When my alarm went off at 7 a.m., I shut it off and went back to sleep. When I woke up an hour and a half later, I decided it was time to get this run done.

I had nine miles on the schedule, the farthest I planned to run before the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in two weeks. My goal was to go slowly and get it done.

When I hit the first mile in under 10 minutes, I was a little worried that I had started too fast and would burn out later. I tried to back off the speed a little bit to make sure I had enough energy to get me through the whole nine miles.

Right after mile seven, I turned into a new neighborhood and was excited to find this kind of rural area that reminded me of running back home in PA. Who knew something like that existed inside the beltway? There were lots of people out for walks with families and their dogs. It was kind of quaint.

I managed to finish up 9.16 miles in 1:29:08, an average of 9:40 per mile.

Not too shabby.

After this weekend's long run, I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll do well in the race in two weeks.

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In another news, Amber over at Girl With the Red Hair, featured me today as her career spotlight. I know I don't talk about too much of the specifics of my job here, so if you're curious about what I do from 9 to 5, go check it out!

Happy Monday!