The Long Run

Pretty good race where

I finally broke my streak of progressively slower half marathons,

beating my BDR half of 1:33:11 with a 1:32:22. Good solid first seven miles with splits: 6:44, 6:36, 6:32, 6:49, 6:51, 6:51, 6:56.

But, then the rest were not so good with mile 8 at 7:13. No more splits under 7:00 after that, worst one was mile 12 at 7:28 and then a little bit of a comeback at mile 13 with 7:02 and finally a good kick at the end meaning some of the slow down was mental since there was still some gas in the tank.

Race was delayed by 37 minutes so perhaps could have been better with more cool temps running. There was a little bit of a breeze which helped.
Managed second place age group and not too far off from 1st AG.

Stuck around for awards for the half but left before the halfathon series awards which it turns out I earned a second place award there for: Holiday Half 1:30:53, 1st half of Clearwater Marathon 1:38:02, and today's race at 1:32:27 (gun) for total of 4:41:28, about 8 minutes behind Dr Cottrell's time for 1st AG for series.

Jessica made it down to see me finish and then hang out for a bit, rode down with Renee and then hung out with Ryan, Suzan, Tracy, Denise and a couple other Striders while awards were going on.

Ran at the Y with the Striders. Mixed bag of running - some easy miles, two miles under 7:00 and 5 strides at the end trying to hit sub 6:00 and succeeded on two of them.

Out the door pretty much on time for a change, looped around the nbhd and out and back around the golf course. Back to cool this morning.

5:30 start at Longleaf.

Ran with Jamie for first 4.4 miles, out to the bridge, had averaged about an 8:41 pace. She turned back and I continued on with some tempo miles, had the following

splits: 6:37, 6:31, 6:25, 6:40, 6:36 and 0.51@6:36

Very happy with these and more so how they felt and also good to stretch it out a little longer at the end. Going to try and get in a 7 mile tempo some time before Boston. Felt like something might be starting to click back on (no, not a clicking in hips or knees, but a good kind of click!).

Also, this was only my third run in the GoMeb Speed2 shoes, one training run, the Clearwater marathon, and now today.  The shoes felt good today, much better than the last two times.

Got back to parking lot just as the two last Striders left, Clark and Cindy were about to pull out of the lot. They broke the coffee back out and poured me a cup before leaving.

Shorter run in the neighborhood this morning, enjoyed the nice and cool air.  I was a little less than motivated to run this morning but finally got out before it was too late.

Couple problems delayed getting started, but it was cool enough to not matter.  I hadn't been up here in a while.  The first left after going through the light is no longer there, need to drive down farther west on SR 50, do a u-turn and take a right now.  Parking is $3, but I forgot they don't have a fancy ticket machine that takes cash, visa or mc, just some envelopes for check or cash.  Parking lot was desserted so I drove to a nearby 7-11 to get change (and a chocolate milk) and came back.

Did an out and back to the south then did the main part of the run out and back north. Averaged 8:18 for the first 8 miles, then picked it up and averaged 7:27 for the last 12 miles. Had a couple of miles where I slowed down a bit (7:40 and 7:51), due to some sort of imbalance pinging my lower back. Stopped and stretched a bit and did the last two miles faster - 7:12 and 7:07. Legs and aerobic both felt good and the rolling hills there are a pretty good Boston trainer.

Miles 9-20 splits: 7:29, 7:32, 7:33, 7:23, 7:10, 7:18, 7:33, 7:26, 7:40, 7:51, 7:12, 7:07

It was good to come back up here.  There were 0 other runners out, a few walkers and a good amount of bikes on an organized ride or race (autism benefit I think)

This run capped off a pretty challenging week of running after a hard workout/race on Sunday, a good mid week tempo run and then a hills and distance workout.  I'll try for some good miles next week before looking at tapering for Boston.