11.3 miles today and they felt great. I did the 8 and 1 run/walk intervals and focused on running on the balls of my feet (my whole foot lands, it's just that my weight is on the ball when each foot lands where it used to be that I would land on the heel and transfer the weight to the balls of my feet. I've seen people who run only on the balls of their feet, the heel never touching down and that just looks weird to me.) My pace felt good. Overall, including the walk breaks, it took 1 hour and 57 minutes, about a 10 minute pace on a moderately hilly route. No knee pains. My calves have been really tight the last couple of weeks, probably because of this new running style. I can tell I'm going to have to start stretching more on off days.

It's great to have motivation again. Now that I look back on it, I think I lost it around the same time that I started thinking that I wouldn't be able to do Chicago. I really really want to do that race. I don't know why that one has me hooked more than any other. Maybe because I've always loved Chicago as a city, maybe because I've heard so many great stories about the marathon there. Maybe because I wanted to run that one as my first but then let logistics get in the way of my planning... and maybe that's why I'm even more determined not to let logistics stop me again.

Who knows. All I know right now is that I'm feeling much better about running again.

Oh, I forgot to mention that during the Peachtree, I ran past this guy. Very inspiring.