9 miles supposedly easy

Yesterday I did my run in the evening. I had work commitments so I had to adjust my schedule a bit. It's been a while since I've run in Memorial park in the evening. It was so crowded it was a tad bit uncomfortable. The day before I did 15 miles so I was going to take it easy. That is, before I saw my good Ethiopian friend Mahta Mesfun. He was running the opposite direction so I switched directions and caught up to him. It looked like he was just taking it easy. But looks can be deceiving, because it took me a while to catch up to him. He told me he was doing 6:40 pace. Oh ok, I'll go ahead and do that since that is what I have been running these days. I found out that he was doing 20 miles at this pace. Pretty sick pace for a 20 miler but to his credit he was doing it pretty easily. When I joined in, the pace quickened and we ended up doing 6:30's. Not exactly the pace I was looking for, but whatever. It was good running with him and afterward I had a chance to hang out with him and Brad - 2:49 Houston Marathoner. Good times. Today I'll definitely take it a little easier. I have a speed workout on Wednesday and the Bayou City Classic on Saturday. Here are my splits:

9 Miles Supposedly Easy

Mile 1	6:49
Mile 2	6:35
Mile 3	6:34
Mile 4	6:36
Mile 5	6:39
Mile 6	6:36
Mile 7	6;36
Mile 8	6:36
Mile 9	6:21
Total Average Pace	6:36