Every Run is a Great Run!

Taper time. Easy morning run around 4 1/2 miles.

Went with Kim in the early morning over to Center street and ran up/down the hill a couple times. Went fast enough to count 2 miles as MP. Felt pretty good and liked running in the 45-50 degree weather.

Final taper 3 miler. Was going to do this run yesterday morning but heard raindrops so I promptly went back to bed and decided today would be dandy :). Hoping for sub-3:25 and BQ for StG. Here is my per-mile pacing plan to get me there. This is roughly based on Andy Browning's racesmartpacebands.com recommendations as well as my prior race experiences. As always I reserve the right to throw out the plan entirely come race day and do something else, usually something really dumb. If I'm feeling good around mile 14/15 and/or 20/21 I'll push the pace a bit and see if I can sneak under 3:20 or even get close to 3:15. For any others shooting for similar goal time I'd love to work together and see if we can help each other out!

1 8:00 8:00
2 8:00 16:00
3 7:30 23:30
4 7:30 31:00
5 7:45 38:45
6 7:30 46:15
7 7:30 53:45
8 8:45 1:02:30
9 8:15 1:10:45
10 8:00 1:18:45
11 8:30 1:27:15
12 8:00 1:35:15
13 7:45 1:43:00
14 7:45 1:50:45
15 7:30 1:58:15
16 7:15 2:05:30
17 7:45 2:13:15
18 7:30 2:20:45
19 8:15 2:29:00
20 7:30 2:36:30
21 7:15 2:43:45
22 7:30 2:51:15
23 7:30 2:58:45
24 7:45 3:06:30
25 7:45 3:14:15
26 7:45 3:22:00
.2 1:45 3:23:45

Not a pretty day for me. Thought I should be able to pull of a BQ (3:25) even though I'd only really trained to finish a marathon, not to race one. Guess since I had only done in any MP training miles on downhill, and nothing on flat or uphill, no tempo runs, no speedwork, it should have come as no surprise that other than the steep downhill sections I didn't have much umph on the flat/uphill sections. I could tell during Damarron Valley that the miles were feeling harder than they should which usually means I'm going to die between miles 16 & 20. And that is exactly what happened. Ran out of gas around mile 17 and couldn't seem to find any motivation to keep me from taking plenty of walking breaks and pretty much just jogging it in. I got a little boost  coming into town with the crowds cheering and I think I did a mile or 2 around 7:30 pace but other than that I just loafed after mile 17 to the end. 

Oh well guess it's always good to learn a lesson. Wish I would have done what I was considering a couple weeks ago - not even wear a watch and just run by feel. But it's all good, time to move on, focus on turning 50 and running 50 miles! Already signed up for Buffalo Run 50 miler in March.

Had a great time spending time with Kim and Terry and his neighborhood gang of SGM 1st timers who stayed with us out our condos. I think they all did pretty well most everyone got PRs and Terry was not too far off the sub-3 goal. Congrats to all those who finished with or without style points!