Run #16: 1 month down, 3 to go!

A excerpt from my phone logs from this past Thursday:
From Melissa: "Holy $@*#!!! Our marathon is in 100 days..............."
Me: Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
Me: Oh wait... that's like 1/3 of a year...

This week made me finally feel like we were back to "distance running". Great variety of runs from rain, solo, and hard hills in the heat lead to us being ready for pretty much anything this morning when we defeated the snooze button.
We chose to try out a new trail, and we were so happy we did. We had heard about the Silver Comet trail for a while now from many local road cyclists and knew it was part of our local Path system, a network of paces pedestrian/bike trails that are scattered around Atlanta. The silver comet is the longest, running from the north west corner of the city all the way into Alabama.
It was fabulous. Other than during an actual race, I have never seen such a gathering of runners who 1. know what they are doing, and 2. know the rules of the road.
I was slightly hesitant at first to run where so many weekend riders were going to be, but the communication between riders and runners was great.
Biker: "On your left!"
Mel: "Thanks!"
Mihkel: "Appreciate it!" was the soundtrack for the morning.

Having done our math as to what our actual run pace and walk paces should be to hit a 12:20 mile, we hit the path confidently this morning, and we were spot on for the whole distance. I'm excited about hitting double digits in a week!

Few things I have been changing up on my runs, some minor, some major:
- chewing gum on a run: worth it to get the sweat out of the mouth?
- sport laces: super convenient, or too tight?
- stride: 180 steps/minute, or go with what i have always done
Any ideas?

And of course, as always, our stats:

And us, happy and sweaty at the end:

See you all on the road!

-Mihkel