On this past weekend, my training schedule had in it slated a run of 3 hours. Going in this was a huge mental barrier because it had dawned on me a couple weeks back I had only run over 3 hours once ever. It was in my second marathon when I ran 3:04:22 with a sinus infection. That was back in 2005. My 'whoa' moment made me want to scramble to find an event to run in that I could do the distance at a reasonable pace with people. My options ran the gambit from two trail and one road marathon along with a long 'train' run with the RVRR club. In the end, the weather forecast of showers on Saturday swayed me towards going solo early. The rain I felt would cool me off. However, turns out the rain passed before I started at 5:45am.
Mentally, I had a few rough spots but when I finished I was happy. I ran out 1:30 on the Schuylkill Trail managing to get out to the Norristown Transportation Center in that time. My pace back actually was faster! I ended up having to add mileage to keep me going for more than 3 hours. When the clock finally was stopped, I ran for 3:04:45. It was only a few seconds over the longest time I had ever run and nearly as long. I ticked off 26.13 miles. A lot better than I expected. Only downside was the lack of restrooms and water fountains on the trail. I was very disappointed as I hoped to use both. While I managed to get through without water, nature did call loud requiring a minor pit stop. It was super quick.
What was not super quick was the Sunday run. I slept in til 8am (which I never really do) and headed out to do 10 but wound up logging 14. Another good day.
While some great miles on this weekend, I will be hitting the trails during this week in prep for my 10K race on Saturday. Looking forward to it as it on a DuPont estate. Sunday will be my long run day. Hope to tack on 20.
My miles.....
No comments:
Post a Comment