First big one in the marathon prep. I'm going to get one more next weekend. Wet morning to start in the dark, that's never fun. Plus Mike was gone so I was on my own. Ran the Slugs course down to zero then out to mile 9, then back to zero at the end to round out the 20 (actually, I was about 300 yards short or so because of where the parking lot is). Anyway, my hip camelback was acting weird about 4 minutes in, I couldn't get it to stablize. I got frustrated, and just dropped it. So I had about 16 miles without water, lucky it was raining, I guess. First two were fast, but I ended up staying at the faster pace. I knew I should have been in better control, but it was pitch dark and rainy and the fast pace kept coming to me. The rain was on and off, during the few short downpours I seemed to speed up, maybe my mind was on the weather instead of pace. At the big hill in Manchester I told myself I was going to get four consecutive miles over 7, and I got three. Then I was back under 7/min pace and held that to the end. I kept waiting for that pace to drill me, but other than a few leg muscle pains I felt pretty strong and in control. A gu at 14 helped. When I got back to my water that was pure joy, and that gave me some energy for the last two. Here's the splits: 13:26 (first two, although that's a little short); 7:16; 6:55; 6:46; 7:05; 6:54; 6:54; 7:56 (crept up the hill); 7:09; 7:07; 6:51; 6:47; 6:47; 6:51; 6:36; 6:56; 7:06; 6:50; 5:26 (short). The time was 2:17 total, which factors out to where I want to be in the marathon. So hopefully I can recover, shake this little sore throat/cold, and get another good workout in next week. Three weeks until the race now. Probably need to get new shoes and break them in now. Maybe the best part of the morning was breakfast. I was late, and we had a new waitress who was in over her head. I absent-mindedly ordered the special (which is cheap but kind of small) when I knew I was hungry for more than that. I was regretting it, but then she confused the orders and gave me a huge plate of bacon and eggs, for the special's price ($3). It was worth the 15 minutes of hunger pangs to get that reward.
supernova red -- 372
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