9 miles tempo

There was a choice between 6 and 9 miles for the club training session. I wasn't sure about running 9 miles and thought I would just decide along the way according to how I felt, as there were others in the fast pack who were planning only to run the shorter distance. We headed along Canniesburn Road, possibly having left Garscube Estate by the wrong gate, and joined the canal towpath at Blairdardie. The first couple of miles were run at an easy 7-minute pace but we got quicker along the canal, and approaching Anniesland we were below 6:10/mile. Not surprisingly, the pack started to split up. I decided I would be OK with 9 miles and we picked our way down the steps at Dawsholm to join the Kelvin Walkway. We took the shortest path through the Botanic Gardens, which was also probably a deviation from the planned route, and returned to Garscube Estate via Queen Margaret Drive and Maryhill Road. I kept up with Joe all the way to the end, and as we were a few hundred metres short of 9 miles, we ran all the way to the pavilion. Run.GPS measured the distance at 8.75 miles although I hadn't managed to get it going until we had already run about .2 of a mile. Average pace was 6:34/mile for the 8.75 miles.