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January 21, 2007
a little long run before breakfast
I think I need to find a marathon in sub zero temperatures. That seems to be the perfect conditions for me. We had a 12.5 mile run this morning, it was -16 (3) degrees out, clouds a bit of wind but no snow.
I ran the first 5 miles with S and V, who are normally a little faster than me. I figured they were taking it slow today. After they turned off I headed up North Street feeling good. Coming back down the hill I still felt good ... surprisingly since I was running by myself. I tend to focus on all my twitchs and twings to help the time go by when I run alone. Nothing to occupy my anxiety ridden head today.
At the second waterstop around mile 7 I caught up with J who's my age and qualified for Boston last year. I decided to set myself a little challenge to entertain me through the next 5 miles. See how long I could keep her in my sights. My initial guess was about 2 miles ... if I squinted! They left the waterstop, so I quickly gulped down my gel and water and followed. I felt like a spy. I could still see them after 2 miles, they weren't that far ahead at 3, then came the last hill of the day. They lost me there, I thought they were gone for good, we only had 1.5 miles to go so I had hung in way longer than I thought. Rather proud of my superhuman running today, I was determined not to slow down just because they were gone.
I kept going. My legs were frozen, numb from the waist down, everything except my left very tight hamstring. Then I glanced at my garmin, wow, that can't be right. I had run the first 10 miles of todays run 12 faster than my entire long run last week. As I praised myself, stroking my ego during the last mile, I came around the corner and looked ahead ... there they were no more than 100m in front of me, I ran the last 1/2 mile as fast as my weary, cold, tired legs would allow. I finished about 10 seconds after them.
When we went inside to stretch, I asked J if she had had a good run, I was secretly hoping she would say it was the best run she had ever had ... but it wasn't it was okay, not bad. So I figured even I could almost keep up on her bad day, that's probably still a super great day for me!
Final mileage for the run 12.98 miles in 2.09 which is supersonic fast for me that includes the two waterstops, considering my PB for a half is 2.10.14 I am happy happy happy
After the run we headed out for breakfast. It took over an hour for our food to arrive. I thought I was going to pass out, I ate my western sandwich so fast I don't even remember what it tasted like!
Posted by Ali at January 21, 2007 3:56 PM
Comments
wow! the cold must be making you faster. good work.
Posted by: deene at January 21, 2007 9:58 PM