Running

It's been such a nice spring. We've almost hit 70 degrees twice and the winds haven't been too bad. When the weather is nice, I love running outside. A while back, one of my friends/gym buddies encouraged me to sign up for my first 10k. I've participated in multiple 5k's, a half marathon and a 62 mile relay race. I had yet to run a 10k. For those of you who do not want to bust out some math skills, it's 6.2 miles. I've been running intermittently with a few of my friends (D, E and H) in hopes of trying to like running again. I had a falling out during the winter because I hate treadmills. While I have been running, I've always wanted to try to keep a pace of 10 minute miles. To me that was a good pace. Upon running with H, who is significantly faster than me, I realized that I can go a bit faster than 10 minute miles. She kills me though, pushes me when running the rollers and keeps me going. I took a small sabbatical from running with her when I realized she was killing it but running 8ish minute miles. Kill me now. One of my biggest issues is running alone. I feel like I want to but never get my butt out there. I've ran a few times alone but it is still something that needs work. In the process of running, I've noticed my speed has slightly increased. I can only go off time then I have to map out my run so I can see how many miles it was. I'm trying to get 4 miles in on my short runs the 6+ on the long ones.
I feel like I'm blabbing...
Back to the race. Saturday was the day for the race and I didn't feel very prepared but I wasn't going to back down. I had H there to support me but I knew I wouldn't be running with her. She wanted to finish in 49 minutes and I just wanted to be under an hour. The first half went really good, but the second half, not so good. I needed to walk but I tried to minimize it the best that I could. A little disappointed with myself, I still kept at it. I tried pushing it because as I neared the finish line, my time was looking more and more like I was going to hit an hour. I pushed it crossing the finish line and BAM 58:48! Under an hour! After doing some mad math, that's roughly 9:30 miles. WOOP WOOP! H, ran it in 47 minutes! WOOHOO! For some of you, that's really slow but for me it's a personal record. It made me feel so good about myself. I'm signed up for another race in June. The Sawtooth Relay. I participated in it last year, and LOVED it. I hope to bust out a couple half marathons this summer as well. I just want to keep this up and even keep this time as I increase my distance.
Are any of you runners? Do you have any plans to race this summer? Any good tips on fighting your mind while running?
Happy Wednesday all!!