I'm back, I think. I've signed up for the CARA marathon training program, which kicks off in four weeks (June 13). But, they sent me an email this week that said that I could run with the summer half-marathon training group starting today. Since my running has been really light for the past two weeks, I decided to go. I went with the 8:30 group and we were due for 4 miles. I also wanted to see how my IT band would hold up to "race pace" for a few miles. If it didn't go well, I was going to skip tomorrow's race and sign up for one of the half-marathons in Chicago next month. I'm happy to report that I had a good run and my knee is pain-free. So I'm going to give it a go tomorrow. Today's splits:

Mile 1: 8:24
Mile 2: 8:20
Mile 3: 8:24
Mile 4: 8:18

Total: 4.13 miles at 8:21/mile pace.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to run the first 10k in 8:26-8:28/mile and see how I feel. Hopefully I can keep that pace the entire race then kick the last couple of miles. If my knee is bothering me, I'm planning on slowing down or pulling out. There's no use getting badly injured right before my marathon training starts.