Sixteen Miler

This morning, I joined the group that's training for the Chicago Marathon. They call themselves "26 Crazy." They're a lot of fun.

Most had never run 16 miles, which was this morning's plan. We started running 11:15s and stayed on that pace for much of the outer half. It was juicy (90% humidity and 68 degree dewpoint), so slow and steady was fine with me. We were all drenched by the time we arrived at the six-mile water station.

At Mile 10, with soaked feet, I was itching to drop the pace. So were Jack and Eddie, so we started doing 10:00s, then 9:30s. We hit the only severe hill at 12.5 and charged it hard. I hit another hill at 13.5 and started to lose ground slowly. They started running sub-9:00s and I settled on 9:45s. The last 1.5 was mostly uphill, but gradual. I compartmentalized the discomfort and finished fine.

Experience is helping me deal with the end of long runs. I'll need it and more ... I'll have another 10 miles to go in two months!

I finished in two hours, fifty-four minutes, a plodding 10:53/mile pace. The group spent about 20 minutes at four water stops, which is a shade long. I like about a two-minute break on most training runs, except of course during a raceday simulation. It's quite the social crowd, so the benefit is time flies. So I mostly stretch, half-run and join the mingling during the hydration mixers.

A few runs before October 25 will be longer than today's. But it's good to look at the schedule and see I'm on it. I've run 61 miles the last two weeks - 29 and 32. Peak weekly mileage will be about 43 three weeks before the race. Bring it on!