Sunday Long Run

Sometimes you just have one of those runs where everything goes right...
So, in the brief window of time yesterday, when it wasn't absolutely freezing, and the wind wasn't blowing to all hell, I decided to go for my run. The first mile felt pretty smooth, and I sailed through in 6:32. Now this pace isn't exceptionally fast for me, but anytime I run under 7 for the first mile and it feels smooth, I know its going to be a good run. The next mile was 6:05, and with the exception of one other mile in 6:02, the remainder of the run was going to be logged at 6 min./mile pace or faster. I got to mile nine, and thought that I was really going to be moving the rest of my run. At mile ten, I remembered that just because you feel good at the half-way point, that a lot can go wrong on a long run, and curbed my enthusiasm (this was not because I was feeling bad). At mile 13.1, I was glad that I had curbed my enthusiasm, as things were not feeling awesome at this point (though they were not feeling bad, either). I pushed through mile 15, planning on taking mile 16 easy. And I did, but still somehow managed sub-6 for that last mile. I then jogged the last 0.12 miles in... (Full run details on my strands account).
So this was definitely a good long run for me. There are a few things that made it even more special:
1) I had planned on taking the run easy. And the effort going in was easy. Everything just went really smoothly.
2) I mentioned mile 13.1 earlier for a reason. This is the half-marathon distance (an event that I have not run often). Regardless, I came through in 1:17:42, a new half-marathon PR! This broke my old PR by a solid 3 seconds. Even more impressive when you figured that I ran a 6:32 to start with. If you take that mile out and add in mile 13.1 to 14.1, which was a sub-5:50, then I literally shattered my old PR.
3) After the run, I, not surprisingly, felt completely spent. However, I did not cramp up at all while stretching, a problem I have been having for a while. And...
4) I was rewarded once again after the run with a rare sighting: a 159.6 on the scale! It's been years since I've seen this number. I will give you that this was a post-workout weight, but it was still exciting to finally see a sub 160.

It's great to have stuff finally start to come together, and I just wanted to share this with whoever may be interested. So thanks for reading, and "Blaze on!"