Closing out Week 17

  The beginning of this week was pretty questionable, and even had me worried for a while. But by Thursday and Friday I was feeling better about things, and no longer worried. I will once again say that I am enjoying the taper still, don't get me wrong I very much enjoyed the training but it is nice to finally kind of sit back and relax a little.
  I wasn't really sure if this morning was going to happen or not, Dorian was pretty restless but luckily I was able to get up at 4 AM. The temperature was 45 degrees, chilly but I decided not to wear a long sleeves, instead I wore my capris and a dri-fit T-shirt and gloves. It was really chilly at first, but after 1-2 miles I began to warm up. 
  Around 1.5 miles I heard a dog or two barking, then I heard a or the pack of coyotes. Both were coming from a field and it didn't sound like it was more than 100 feet from us which bothered me just a little because it was too dark to see them. Normally if I am running alone I am not too worried about coyotes and other wild animals, but sometimes a dog can antagonize those wild animals so between 1.5 and 1.7 miles I walked  while keeping an eye on the field expecting either the coyotes or the dog. I did hear some commotion that sounded like the dog got into a scuffle with either one or 2 coyotes, had me just a tad concerned about what was going on out there.
  During most of the run, I kept thinking about the race and wondering how things will go. I keep ranging between confidence and nervousness/anxiety on how I am going to handle it. I am sure everyone goes through this, and lucky me I have 2 weeks to keep running it through my mind. I went ahead purchased (3) pace bands from R2R (Race 2 Remember?), one is for a 4:15:00 finish, one is for a 4:10:00 finish and the 3rd one is for 4:25:00 finish. I'll either carry the 4:15:00 and improvise after so many miles or something.
  Anyways, Rocky and I ran 10.3 miles in 1:41:47 with an average pace of 9:53 min/mile, elevation gain of 265 feet and a loss of 265 feet. Other than the walk during the coyotes, I also walked up a hill right before mile 7.
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 10:35
Mile 2 - 11:25 (rather be slow than attacked by coyotes)
Mile 3 - 10:01
Mile 4 - 9:53
Mile 5 - 9:46
Mile 6 - 9:12
Mile 7 - 10:08
Mile 8 - 9:42
Mile 9 - 9:31
Mile 10 - 8:58
.3        - 8:42