Jack 15

Ran 15.28 miles this morning. Just for fun. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Truly though, I used this race as a training run. I have a marathon coming up in 4 weeks and I needed a decent, forced if you can call it that, long run.

The race was interesting - very small and also a relay. Most of the 100 runners were running the relay of varying amounts. Only 35 or so of us ran the full thing. I don't mind relays but when I'm running behind someone, using them as a guide to keep my pace going and then they stop at 7.5 and their super-speedy boyfriend takes over the last half, it's a little dejecting.

But my first hour was awesome. I was averaging a 10min/mile pace. Seriously! I finished mile 6 at 1:01. How insane is that? That really took me by surprise - especially since part of that - a couple miles or so - was on gravel! Thank God I have been training on gravel. That really helped.

But my next hour was rough. I really dropped in pace and motivation. My head wasn't in it, I was struggling to keep a decent breath, and I had a stitch in my side that would not go away. So I was at about 10.5 when I hit hour 2 and met up with MS.

The last hour went better. I realized if I got my pace back up I could almost make my same time I had in a half marathon 2 years ago. I was off by a minute or two for that mileage, but it made me feel so much better. My pace wasn't as bad as I thought. I was doing pretty well considering. So my mojo came back and I did better for the last hour. And I was able to pass one more person (granted he was, like, 90, but still) and that helped too.

The finish line was kind of pathetic. And there wasn't chip timing, but overall it wasn't a bad run. One of the bad things was that we were running to a specific landmark which you could see at mile 10.5 - that sucked because you knew to where you were running, but you also knew just how far away it really was. Uffda. It was at that point that I got a little sad that I don't get to run TCM next week. The best part of that race is that you don't see the finish until you're almost right on top of it so it's always there to look forward to reaching. Today, I just kept looking at the finish and wondering why it was taking me so long to get there.

Anyway, I'm happy with my time (2:56:18) and after today the meals will get back on track to help me get ready for the marathon. I'm hoping for a good time this year. I need it and I've been working hard for it.