Overall Good Day, Pacing Problems and Sampling Gels

Three day weekend, here we co- are. I guess we're already at the three day weekend, aren't we?

Looking back at today, I have to admit that it was a pretty swell day. Swell is a word that should be used more, don't you think? Was a day that was a lot more relaxed than most of the other days during this week, presented a pretty good project, got a twelve miler in, and tonight I'm going to a midnight showing of the college's production of Lysistrata with some friends. It shall be raunchy.

Why yes, I did run twelve miles. WOO! I even have proof:

The one thing that makes this furious at myself however is that pace. Ten minute miles? Ten minute miles?!?! When the heck did my pace decide to slow down like crazy? Now, I know what you're thinking, "Hannah, there are runners out there who would be fine with a pace like that." There are also runners out there who would look at that and scoff, who would be the people I'd like to punch in the face. However, the biggest problem is that that pace is not my pace, and I hate it. I want to be able to finish in double the time it took me to finish the half marathon because well, it's double the mileage. I finished the half marathon in a little under two hours. That's a pace of about 9 minutes. Mrugh.
I suppose I really shouldn't be so hard on myself since the last time I did a long run was the thirteenth. We are our harshest critics I guess.

Ranting aside, I'd just like to state that I freakin' ran 12 miles today. That's pretty sweet. I'm getting close to surpassing the half marathon mark of miles!
This run consisted of a lot of "firsts" actually. First long run in my new shoes, first run since I got sick (which now might have been a bout of the flu. Not really sure.), first time doing three days of running in a row since starting training for anything, and first time trying a gel!

As you can see above, the gel that I decided to try was the Strawberry Banana Gel. I was kind of terrified at this gel concept, but at the same time intrigued. Would it be horribly disgusting? What would it taste like?
The gel ended up tasting like banana Laffy Taffy and strawberry Laffy Taffy... if it were gellified. Which was a good thing, because I love Laffy Taffy. Weird thing though? I felt the need to chew on the gel. Let me repeat that: I felt like I needed to chew gel. What is wrong with me?
I felt kind of sick at the halfway mark though, and that feeling lasted for awhile. Eh. As you might be able to see, I wasn't able to finish the gel either. It currently sits in my fridge for another day. Can you save them? I have no idea.

As a last note, I had to think about how lucky I was that I got sick instead of injuring my legs. I was out of commission for a few days instead of what could have been a few weeks, maybe months.

Despite the frustration, as I said before it was a pretty swell day. Tomorrow should be pretty swell as well! (Oh goodness, we've gotten to rhyming. I should stop before it's too late.)

Runners out there, how do you work on speeding up your pace? I was doing interval stuff, and it seemed to be working on the shorter runs. Not really the longer ones, as you can see.