8 miles under sunsets and stars

yesterday may have been the best run of my life.  i know i have been saying that a lot lately, but it's probably because my fitness is improving exponentially each day.   i ran at north farm at 8PM, hesitant to run any earlier due to my near death experience on tuesday. this heat is ridiculous.   i usually hate running at night, if i dont run early in the morning, i feel like my entire day is wasted.  however, it was wonderful.  on my way to the farm, a cool breeze came in.  what a surprise.  it was almost as if it was the first cooler day of fall, where it's hot in the day but gets a little chilly at night.  when i say chilly, i mean it dropped below 80 for the first time since i can remember.  i ran just over 8 miles last night, averaging 7:01 for the first 4 miles and then i started picking it up.  my last mile ended up being close to 6:30 pace.  the strides from the night before are really opening up my legs and giving me a quick preview of what my leg speed needs to be. i thought that i was legitimately running 7:15-20 pace.  when my gps clicked off at 7:01, i smiled.  *freeze frame!*  i know my gps is accurate because i was running with it on one of our campus loops, and it clicked where all our mile markers are around town.  so needless to say, this is really helping me stay true to my training.     

here is a picture i took just after the first mile.

8 miles of this