Marathon pace run on another shorts running day with temps still in the 50s. I started out feeling not too fresh, not surprising after the whole week of training, and several weeks in a row of over 50 miles. Ran 6 miles easy, took my first gel (I'm starting to take gels at the same intervals I'll be taking them in the marathon, and in Rotterdam, they will have water stops only every 5K - not ideal, but I'll have to live with it.), and started on the marathon tempo. Since I had to run 8 miles at MP, the longest I've ever run it as of yet, I decided to start conservatively (8:10 pace) and see what happens. If I felt good, I would speed up naturally, if not, I could maintain this pace, and still run MP. So, I started at 8:10, and it did not feel particularly easy. My breathing was perfectly fine, but my legs were tired. I assume it's just cumulative fatigue from training. Nevertheless, gradually, my pace dropped, first to 8:06 average, then to 8:01 average, and finally, after 6 miles, to 7:57 average. I was surprised as I did not increase the effort consciously. I took the second gel 6 miles into the MP segment. My legs started to tighten up towards the end, but overall I still felt good. My stomach was cramping again, but not too bad. After I finished MP tempo, though, it cramped up big time, I guess it didn't like change in pace. Jogged home another 3 miles. Total time 2:27:28. Now 17+ miles do not seem so long, after I did 20 last week. Oh, and I ran in DS Trainers again - no problems whatsoever. | 