This was our biggest test so far. Run a half-marathon distance (13.1 miles) at our targeted marathon paces. About 20 of us met at Kersting Ct. this morning at 7:00am to run the course that Murray plotted for us. The devilish thing about the route was the hundreds of feet of elevation gain from 1.3 miles in until the five-mile mark. Nadir volunteered to carry our supplies to the high point of our run, and each one of us was relieved finally to see him, crunching out his sit-ups, when we crested the last hill on the way to him.
My target was 7:37 per mile, which gave me a goal of completion in 1:40:00. I fell behind my pace on some of the uphill stints, but the long descent down El Molino Ave. let me make up all of it. I even got far enough ahead of pace that I was able to finish on schedule despite a seeming wall that we had to climb 11.5 miles in.
A scary sign: Kary was our second helper, and she was stationed at the 10-mile point. I knew she was going to be there, I was looking for her, and no crowds were around… but I would have missed her if she had not yelled out to me as I zipped by. Fatigue, of course, was the main factor, but I am going to blame this one on the fact that I did not wear contact lenses for the run.
Final result: I finished in 1:38:00, two minutes ahead of schedule. While I am so happy with that result, I know I could not have kept it up any longer than these 13.1 miles. On marathon day, in two and a half months, I will have to do what I did today… and then do it all over again right away. I tell myself that I can trust the training because I could not have come anywhere close to today’s performance two and a half months ago.
Note on upcoming training: Next week seems to be a lighter week, perhaps as a follow-up to this more intense week of running. Our mid-tempo day is only four miles long, and only two of those miles are faster than “easy tempo” pace. And I can’t believe I am saying this, but… Saturday’s long-tempo run is “only” ten miles. (And we do get to run it at marathon-pace +30 seconds.)
…but there is a double-5K stuck in there for Wednesday.