Saturday 6/12 one hour run, last "long" one!

Bill said to do an hour run this weekend at a 7:45-8:00 pace, with a 10 minute warmup and cooldown before and after.
The forecast called for rain at about 10am today (Saturday) and sunny skies tomorrow. I took it easy last night and got up early today to get it done with. I figured an extra day removed from my last long run will help me a little on marathon day.
I drove down to the Lakes around 8am. I took a look to see if there were any 5K's or other events going on, as these really disrupt the trails. It looked like there were running/walking events being set up on both Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet, but very few people were hanging around the tents. So I figured the events probably wouldn't start until 9am at the earliest. I was in the clear :)
I took off on the 10 minute warmup feeling a little tired but ready to go. Turns out the 10 minute warmup was almost exactly a mile, going 1.01 in that span.
It was a little difficult to settle into the 7:45-8:00 pace in the first "real" mile because I decided to run up to Lake Harriet. Right away I had to cross a street and go up several steep hills to get over there. But once I hit the flat path along the lake I did just fine.
Here are the splits of the "real" miles:
1 - 8:15/mile
2 - 7:56
3 - 7:53
4 - 7:53
5 - 7:53
6 - 7:51
7 - I forgot to hit my watch here, as I finished up the hour of running. I'm pretty sure I was in the 7:50's.
When I got to the one hour point, I slowed to a slow jog. I've always hated the cooldown jog, it seems more difficult to me than the faster pace. But it helps recovery I guess, so I did it. I didn't quite reach 10 minutes because I ran into my ALARC friend Alberto and we walked and talked for a while. See you in Duluth, Alberto!
I thought through my various perceived paces during this run. There's the mile-for-time pace which now 6:10, there's the 10K pace which is about 7:20, the half marathon pace (racing) which is about 8:15, and my comfortable-run-forever pace which is 9:00.
So today's 7:50 pace was kind of in no-man's land. It took some focus, especially early on. When I'd realize I was slowing down a bit, it wasn't tough to adjust. It didn't feel like a lot more effort, it just kind of took a quick breath in and thinking "OK, gotta get back on track here."
I think with all this work, the 9:00 comfort pace that Bill and I discussed is moving more toward about 8:20. Woo hoo! This might be a good pace to target in the marathon, along with some walking, but Bill and I will discuss that during the week.