10 Miles and 1 Donut: A #Running Update

The past two weeks have been extremely inconsistent for me, which means that my training runs have been off. Between traveling to Los Angeles for IDEA World and BlogFest, and then rearranging my schedule before and after to accommodate the time off, it's been hard to fit in the necessary milage. But I'm still targeting the Michigan Wine Trail Half Marathon on August 16, and I ran ten miles yesterday morning:

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According to my training plan, I needed to go anywhere from 10 to 12 miles. But I knew that 12 would be pushing it, so I stuck with 10. No time goals. No pace work. I literally just wanted to get out there and run.

My town is the best, I swear. I met my running group at 6:00AM and ended up running with them until about 8:00AM. They kept going when I cut out at 10 miles, which gave me a few minutes of solo running. Literally, it was the calm before the tourist storm, which is one of the main reasons I love getting up early to run downtown: Because I get my town to myself again, at least for a few minutes. I love the tourists and everything they bring to our economy, but still. I love my quite town, too.

I also love my Saturday morning coffee and donut.
It's become a tradition.

Judge me if you want to, I don't care because #yum.
Now, let's circle back to the point of this post: A running update.

After successfully—and comfortably—completing ten miles yesterday, I feel comfortable jumping right back into my training plan. I've already laid out the upcoming week, which has me doing a 6-miler on Monday and a negative-split 6-miler on Thursday. Plus, I'm doing a local 10K on Saturday.

I'm actually scheduled for eight miles on Saturday, so I might need to catch a few miles before my race. I still have to figure that out.

I also need to actually sign up for the Michigan Wine Trail Half Marathon. I procrastinated so badly with this one, and now I'm (literally) going to pay for it. BUT—I'm on top of things for The Color Run in South Bend this fall.

I'll be "running" it with my daughter.
She's so excited to "win" her first race.

Also currently contemplating: The Chicago Women's Half Marathon and The Foster Swift Half Marathon in Grand Rapids.

Question: How do you feel about race medals? The Chicago Women's Half Marathon is giving away a necklace at the finish line instead of a medal...this bums me out. How much emphasis do you place on the medal when you sign up for a race? Could you care less, or do you really want one?