Today we had another half marathon, again a marathon pace (7:37 per mile). I considered this the biggest test so far of the training because if I did not feel better this time than I did two weeks ago, the, the actual marathon would be nearly impossible to complete on schedule.
Ten or twelve of us met in front of PCC to run the official Half Marathon route that will be used in November. About half of us shaved off a south-reaching stretch to make it their preferred ten-mile route. We sent Kary and Nadir off to support us at miles six and ten (thank you both for that!), and then headed out. Some notes about the run:
- The one-mile stretch up Marengo from Glenarm is not nearly as much of a climb as I dreaded.
- The one-block climb on Green Street going from St. John to Orange Grove is as much of a climb as anticipated. (But it is nothing compared to Catra’s climbs).
- At the Rose Bowl, we blended in with a 5-K run in progress. It was kind of fun after running over eight miles to be able to keep up with people on their three-mile runs.
- If you do not carry a copy of the route map, you had better memorize it well before heading out. We had one person visit the Langham Hotel (formerly the Ritz-Carlton), another take a tour of the Pasadena Civic Center (City Hall, the county courthouse, and other government offices), and a third who missed out on our jaunt through the ‘hood at mile 10.5.
I was able to finish in 1:35:45, four minutes ahead of my targeted time at marathon pace. The good news for me about this one (as compared with the run two weeks ago) is that I could have continued for a couple of more miles this time. I was nowhere near being able to do that two weeks ago.