8km on 08-08-08

I did it! I endeavored to complete 8 on 08-08-08, and managed to do it. Mind you it was only 8 kilometers and not the 8 miles that was challenged on the blogosphere, but hey, I'm just a rookie. In any case, with my knee feeling less than 100% I warmed up with five minutes of skipping rope and then took off at a gentle pace. The wind was gusting and at certain points I felt like I would be stopped in my tracks, but pushed on through. My one pet peeve on this run, and this may ring true for any other tall runners out there, are people who don't trim their trees at the sidewalk and force us tall runners to impersonate the hunchback of Notre Dame in passing. Not cool! Anyway, at around kilometre 3 I was feeling fine - the knee was loose, I had dropped down into Taylor Creek Park, my pace was in the 5:15 range, and I even passed a cyclist!

At this point I started entertaining thoughts of running 10k, but by the time I hit the 5k mark I was focusing back on reality and my goal of 8k. Then I hit the hill that would take me out of the Park at 6.5k and any thoughts of going more than 8 went out the window. Now I was just trying to not stop and make it to my goal distance. As I am icing my knee here at my laptop, I am feeling pretty good about this run. If my knee hurts so be it. I have a paper to write this weekend and maybe the timing for a couple days of rest is ok. Here's what the garmin said:

And here's the satellite image of the route I took.