Saturday, March 7, 2009

Am I ready?

There are only 41 days left until Salt Lake City Marathon. I ran 20 miles today. I ran with the Runners Roost Running Club Group. There were a couple fast guys who planned on running at 7-7:15 pace. They actually ended up running at 6:45-7:00 pace.

The first mile was at a slower pace. I didn't want to be crazy and go all out on the first mile. The first mile was a 8:15 pace. The only problem was that miles 2-3 were extremely fast because I wanted to catch the fast guys. They were running pretty fast to, so I had to work extra hard to catch them.

We stopped at Mile 4 or 5 for a water/gel break. We stopped again at Mile 8.

Miles 11-13 the other guys started to pick up the pace. Most miles prior were at 7min miles. They started running 6:40 mile pace. They inched their way past me as the next few miles passed. They kept getting further away, but still in sight. Further, further and eventually gone. I kept a pretty good pace on my own, but I was slowing down.

Total Time: 2:24:34
Pace: 7:14/mile
Distance: 20 miles

Miles 1-5: 7:07/mile
Miles 6-10: 7:00/mile
Miles 11-15: 7:10/mile
Miles 16-20: 7:36/mile

Mile 18 was slower because the uphill was pretty steep. Mile 20 was slower too because I was finishing up and tried to relax. All other miles were under 7:30 and most were under 7:10.

What a fast day. Am I ready for SLC Marathon. I sure hope so. I will try to not run super fast miles at the start. The first mile will be a little faster and I should feel stronger because of the taper. Lots more training to still do and I will keep at it. I have another long for the next few weeks.

2 comments:

ShirleyPerly said...

Wow, they certainly did run faster than they planned. I think the most important thing in running a marathon is making sure to stick with your plan. Don't get sucked into running someone else's pace early on or you are likely to pay for it later. Is this your first standalone full marathon?

Iron Eric said...

This will be my 4th full standalone marathon. I did my first one back in college. That was a learning experience.