For a day in December, it really was a beautiful, temperate morning - cool, with temperatures in the 40s, and it had rained the evening before, so it was a little humid. Almost felt like spring - not December! I met Mark at his house at 7 am, and we start our 17.5 mile quest. A mile trek through his neighborhood brings us to the Capitol Crescent Trail and it's a straight shot to Fletcher's Boat House (8 miles away...) from there. We run for 4 miles to Bethesda, where we meet Ken and Emaad, who join us for the next 10 miles. The run is surprisingly uneventful - no swearing, nothing hurting beyond belief, and the 4 of us chat about both everything and nothing. I felt great for most of the way, but I started cramping a little bit around mile 13, and a Succeed! capsule from Mark does the trick. 20 minutes later, I'm feeling a lot better.
After the first 9 miles, we start to inadvertently pick up the pace, and Ken and Emaad fall a bit behind. A last minute sprint in Bethesda allows them to catch up, and we wave goodbye as Mark and I continue on back towards his house, retracing our steps along the CCT. There was no scheduled negative split or descending on this run, but we did it in style, and our last 5 miles are a descend to a sub-10 minute pace.
We come off the CCT, run up a nice hill, the GPS says 17.5 miles (3 hours, 5 minues), and we slow to a walk/jog for the remaining 0.75 miles back to Mark's house. And with that, 15 nautical miles go down.
Check out run in a graphical format, (the green line is the average min/mile pace for the entire run):
For Mark's full training run report, check out his blog!
5 comments:
"After the first 9 miles, we start to inadvertently pick up the pace..." --- really, CM? I suspect it was with malice, perhaps subconscious --- you truly like to hit the accelerator in the final miles, admit it!
Excellent graph, and it tells the tale quite well --- neat run, no major suffering, as a training run should be. (Note that I consider it an 18+ mile excursion, since I counted the cooldown walk/jog for that final 3/4th mile back to tag your car and stop my watch.)
Tnx for another fine Saturday morning journey, CM!
-^z-
Oh, and you forgot to mention the probable PR you set for the half-marathon distance --- was it 2:20 or so? Congrats on that too, Ma'am! (^_^)
Can't argue with an 18+ mile run with no (visible) suffering :)
Ok, I admit it, I like to hit the accelerator in the final miles. But it totally wasn't planned!! Prior to the run, there was no voice in the back of my head saying "Run Mile 17 sub-10". Nothing like that :)
I note that your pace actually picked up shortly after Emaad and I joined you at mile 4.
Coincidence, or were you trying to run away from us?
Ah-ha! That's why those last few miles were so agonizing ... You and Emaad pushed me a little too hard in the early miles!
:P
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