Sunday, August 18, 2013

Accidential 13 Mile Run - Sunday August 18th, 2013 - Details

Sunday Group Run - New Route - 13.27 Miles - 8-18-2013 - Details

As the title implies, I went out for a run this morning and it accidentally became over 13 miles instead of the 8 that was intended. I do have an almost plausible explanation but first let me recap last week.

If you read my post from last Sunday you know that I got in 8 miles with the JRC group run that leaves their store at 7AM Sunday's. I also got in 4 miles in the neighborhood before work on Thursday, a timed 1 mile run (7:46 MPM) with new trainer at the YMCA on Friday and an easy 3 miler on Saturday morning.

Interestingly, at least to me, on Thursday morning I felt like I was pushing the pace a bit and finished with an average pace of 9:28 MPM. I wanted to take it nice and easy on Saturday and finished with an average pace of 9:29 MPM. Total miles for the week was 16.

I went to JRC this morning with the intention of running another 8 miler. I figured I could push it to 10 depending who was running what course. As I was saying hello to those gathered shortly before 7 a fellow recognized me from the trail runs at UNF a few weeks ago. We talked for a few minutes and he told me he was now training for his first marathon. He wanted to get in 12 or 13 today.

This is where the almost plausible part comes in. As I've been driving back and forth on Gate Blvd. the last couple weeks I've been wondering to myself how far it would be to run from the JRC store, out to UNF, take a long lap on the trails and then run back to the store. I asked Christian if he knew and he said he didn't have a clue. Bobby said he thought it would be about 10 miles.

I told Christian that we could run the 10 mile route and then take a short break when we got back to the store and he could then run the 3 mile loop and have his 13 miles in. This plan would have worked fine except Christian did not know the 3 mile loop. Usually, everyone runs the 3 mile loop and then folks just add on miles to get to their goal for the day.

OK, I kind of wanted to run the 10 mile route but I couldn't send Christian on the 3 mile loop after since he had never run it and didn't know the route. Finally, it seemed the only thing for us to do was run the 3 mile loop with the entire group and then head back out for the 10 miler. At about 2 miles in, Christian made reference being "older", I guess he meant than last year because when I asked him how old he is he replied with 37. I laughed and told him I had a couple decades on him and pushed on.

The real problem with doing 13 today, other than maybe pushing a bit hard in the 1st 6 miles, is that I was not prepared. I had brought only 1 water bottle and 1 gel. Over the course of the run I borrowed 2 gels and refilled my bottle several times. The last couple of miles was 1 minute of walking for every 2 minutes of running. I think I'll sleep good tonight.

   

1 comment: