Topped Eight Miles in Preparation for Half-Marathon

I was hoping for improved, cooler weather conditions that would facilitate outdoor road running instead of the indoor treadmill, which I had been basing much of my training on this summer and early fall.  Today, with a little less than two weeks to go before the half-marathon race I'm thinking of entering, the weather was great: late afternoon with a 69 degree temperature and 41% humidity.  I set out on my neighborhood course to see how far I could go.  As it turned out, after prodding myself to go a little bit further here and a little bit further there, I finally wound my way back into my driveway having covered 8.16 miles...well past the halfway mileage for my intended race.  The pace was a tad over nine minutes per mile: not very fast but still reasonable, especially considering that it has been a while since I covered that kind of distance doing road running.  I'm encouraged by this run and plan at least one more long run between now and race day...possibly getting to the ten-mile mark if conditions permit...