The Long Run

Ran at Longleaf w/ Jess. Good easy paced run. Headed to Disney for the day after the run with the kids and meeting up with my brother and his family.

Ran with Renee and Cynthia at Spring Lake. Added on a second loop around the lake at the end to get to 15 miles. Chilly morning to start but perfect for running. Breakfast at Country Kitchen after the run, then home and packed up for camping at Ft De Soto

Classic start out slow (10:05) and finish strong (7:30's). Cool, a little humid Monday morning, get going and chip away at the 10 mile run. Nbhd loop, golf course and out and back on grassy Trinity Blvd shoulder. Having a schedule can be a gift sometimes, I don't think I would have felt up to ten miles this morning if it wasn't on the schedule.

Chilly run (35 degrees), actually not too cold when running with the wind. Started out for a bit with Beka, Jason, and Jean and ran a bunch with Rudy and Joe. Did 7.3 while at the Y, chatted a bit post run over some coffee, and then went home and finished up, hoping it would warm up when it got lighter out, but instead was the same but windier. Oh well, this is as bad as it gets here so I'll just deal with it.

Tough tempo run, chilly wind, them warm because of the layers, but did the job. Warm up 1.7 miles, then 6:52,6:44,6:34,6:41,6:35,6:29, followed by 2ish easy miles.

It's always hard starting out alone in the chilly wind and still dark out but feels much better once it gets a little light out.  Felt great the rest of the day after getting this run checked off.

Out and back run, a bit onto Trinity Blvd. Much warmer this morning, a few sprinkles. Very nice for running.  I started out a bit later than usual so had to cut it a little bit short but still was able to at least get something in.

Ran in the neighborhood with Joe. It was definitely the nicest running weather all week (yesterday was the second nicest day but had a little bit of rain).

Ran out to the blue park and back with the boys, in the evening.

Nice, easy paced run at the Y with Jessica. A few sprinkles at the start with threats of heavy stuff which never came down.  Had thought about doing the treadmill because of the rain but turned out to be the right call to risk it.

A little bit short of my goals this morning, was supposed to do 6 miles, with 3x1 mile at 6:03. Miles were more like 6:15-6:20 and cut the last one short, not going to kill myself so close to the race. Was feeling a little run down from the travel.  Still a good work out.

Easy paced run with Jessica at Longleaf. Chilly but warmed up nicely after a mile or so.

Ran in the neighborhood.  One last shakeout for the legs. Warm up mile, then two goal marathon pace miles, followed by a cool down. Crisp 39 degrees this morning.

3:16:21(gun, chip was 3:16:17), 6th overall, 4th male.

Ran the Clearwater marathon today, my 12th marathon after nearly 3 years of not running one. Wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but the weather was good and I was injury free. Started out a bit fast (in retrospect, but not so fast as it was out of my goal range) - first two miles were 7:12 and 7:05 (downhill on a bridge), next two miles were 7:30's (on a section that I usually slow down on when running the half). Next 12 miles were all under 7:30 (between 7:10 and 7:24).

I was following a guy through Sand Key park wearing an IronMan t-shirt who made me realize I was getting sloppy with the tangents. I ended up passing him finally about mile 8. When I passed him, I seemed to pick it up a bit. I hadn't been feeling strong before that but decided to just go a little faster and see what happened. Just before mile 10 was the Strider manned aid station who gave me the best cheer ever. After passing IronMan, I did not see a single runner until almost mile 14 when crossing the Park Blvd bridge back to the mainland. It was great to see the Cynthia support crew at mile 13 - Renee and Jorge.
Between the bridge and the Pinellas Trail (miles 14-17) I was running pretty strong and feeling good. Unfortunately, at about mile 17 I started getting my first leg cramps, left calf which started getting worse, almost halting me a few times, so I eased back a bit. Once I did that I was passed by three people. There was a man and a woman that I thought were running together (but later found they were not), and some guy without a shirt. Now and then I'd start to pick it up and the man and woman would seem closer but then disappear.

I had a few miles which were just under 8:00 and did my best not to slip despite the cramping.
Finally, with about a half mile to go I passed the guy who was running with the woman, but by this time he was alone. Coming up the base of the Clearwater bridge and then down the helix, I picked it up to make sure I didn't get passed again, with the final kick at a 6:17 pace.

It felt great to get back out there and go through the highs and lows of running a marathon. I'll blame some of the cramps maybe on running in shoes which were too light and maybe too many miles, but I'm sure most of it was training and just how the day worked out.

I saw several of my friends finish, Cynthia's first marathon, Rob, Stan who got PRs and Joe who cut off about 7 minutes from his last marathon (although I just missed seeing him). Bonus was a 3rd place overall plaque for male finishers (but I think I might need to give it back since looks like I was fourth place, or first masters).

Splits:

1. 7:12,
2. 7:05,
3. 7:30,
4. 7:30,
5. 7:22,
6. 7:24,
7. 7:18,
8. 7:21,
9. 7:17,
10. 7:18,
11. 7:23,
12. 7:23,
13. 7:10,
14. 7:14,
15. 7:12,
16. 7:21,
17. 7:35,
18. 7:33,
19. 7:38,
20. 7:44,
21. 7:55,
22. 7:36,
23. 7:54,
24. 7:42,
25. 7:41,
26. 7:30 and 0.27@6:17

(plus there were a few times (3) were I hit the lap button to resync with the mile markers).

The race director advertised the certified length as 26.34, so 26.36 was pretty good as far as tangents go.

Decided to not put off running another day. Calves much better than yesterday and just a little soreness in left quad hanging on. Chilly but pretty good feeling run.

Chilly breeze, legs feeling pretty good this morning, maybe close to 100%. Ran in neighborhoods.

Easy out and back to water stop. Slept in a little bit later than planned and thought about skipping my run but this was better than nothing. And maybe I will run later today.

PM

1.58 mi 00:17 10:48 pace

Ran with the Striders. Easy first mile pace, then picked it up then ran a few miles 7:30-7:50. Cool and humid from the fog.