anti-climactic

having some foot pain that i do not want to be contending with on race day, but decided i should still go out for my easy run today. overcast 45 degrees when i left the house around 9am. have repeatedly failed on the weekend to achieve my prescribed "easy" pace so today wanted to make that happen. figured that 9min/mile would be just right not to tax the system (mostly its my joints, tendons, and ligaments i want to coddle). ended up running 5.9 miles in 53 minutes, so was right on my projected pace. that being said, my first two miles were right on, my middle 2 miles were too slow (closer to 9:20 - no wonder i felt like i was crawling and my perceived exertion was way down) and then my last two had some hills so 8:55 miles felt steady with a little added effort. my right foot bothered me for the first 2 miles and then opened up a little. my left foot actually got worse during the run. i think that my mechanics at any pace slower than 8:45 (on the flat, 9ish on hills) do something bad for feet. makes running long slow distance difficult at this point. i get pessimistic about what this means for my ability to do longer distances but just need to wait and see. sigh.

after an unexpected addition of a fifth letter writer (louis) and the appic portal shutting down for maintenance and then rebooting with some "display" issues - my materials were finally all set and checked twice around 10:30 this morning and i submitted all 20 applications. so i can enjoy my race weekend and look forward to a month (or so) of other work before we start hearing about interviews.