A small group of Buckeye Striders met at Sharon Woods for our 12-mile day. The New Albany Walking Club was there, too. (Hmmm, trying to take over our turf?) There’s a half marathon in Columbus tomorrow, and both of these walking clubs are working water stops.

It was foggy, muggy and humid (redundant?) this morning when we started about 7:35. I was worried it would get unbearable as time went on. Lucky for us, in our last loop the sun came out and there was a great breeze! It was nice!

We started out too fast for a long slow day — our first mile was 14:30. I was worried we were pushing too hard and would have trouble finishing strong if we kept at that pace. We slowed down for a couple miles, and eventually sped back up.

I’m not sure we were mentally ready for today’s mileage. Early in our third loop, someone who shall remain nameless suggested we turn around where we were and walk just 10 miles today. I was strong and we kept going, and the others kept going, too. They didn’t realize that if they had pushed just a little bit harder, I would have folded.

The cool thing is, when we finished everyone was glad that we walked the complete distance. (OK, truth in advertising here. We walked three 3.8 mile loops. It was really only 11.4 miles. But because we felt 12 miles was too long of a training distance for just a half marathon, we decided three loops would be enough.)

Because I messed up the 1-mile splits the last time we were at this park, I did just complete laps this time. OK, our laps were: 56:27; 57:33; 57:55. We averaged a 14:51 mile the first loop, which was what I was aiming for. I had hoped to pick up the pace a little on the next two, but we just couldn’t do it.

Regardless, it was a great morning, a great workout and I know we’ll be ready for the New Albany Walking Classic!

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