Great Tune-Up Run

Instead of running on Saturday morning with MIT we met on Sunday, to participate in the Homestretch 20 Miler in Westerville. Most people were going to use it as a tune-up for their fall marathon, with the intent to run at least 13 miles at marathon pace. That was my intent as well, but as usual things didn't go according to plan. It was cold, raining and windy this morning so I was not optimistic that it would be a good day. We did two warm-up miles and I was already chaffing, yowser!

We started the race off a little faster than we planned but the adrenaline of race day can do wonders. We weren't racing but pinning on a bib can do a lot for the psyche.

Mile 1 – 7:13
Mile 2 – 7:15

The plan was to jump into marathon pace at mile 3 and we eased into pace as planned. Despite the wind and rain things were going quite well.

Mile 3 – 6:52
Mile 4 – 6:40
Mile 5 – 6:37

Ok, that one was too fast! We were feeling a little too good and we realized after clocking a sub-6:40 mile that we needed to slow down. We might pay for that one later...

Mile 6 – 6:41
Mile 7 – 6:40
Mile 8 – 6:43

Ok, so we didn't really slow down but this was feeling easy. We decided to just maintain the pace at maybe shut it down at 13 if we were under 6:50 average pace at that point. Don't want to stray from the plan we set...

Mile 9 – 6:49
Mile 10 – 6:39
Mile 11 – 6:42
Mile 12 – 6:37

Geesh, that was another quick one but we were in the groove and things were still feeling easy. I could feel a bathroom break coming on so I was planning on shutting it down at the next water/restroom stop on the course.

Mile 13 – 6:51
Mile 14 – 7:01

Ok, that was a close one. If the porta-john had been 100 yards further I would have had an embarrassing shuffle to the finish. After my 2:37 pit stop (yes I timed it :) I planned on just cruising into the finish line. Exit porta-john and my friend teammate was nowhere in sight, well maybe I'll carry-on at a decent pace and since we're taking it easy the rest of the way I'll catch him in a mile or two.

Mile 15 – 9:15 (inclding pit stop)
Mile 16 – 7:05
Mile 17 – 7:05

Where the hell is my teamate? I'm running a lot faster than I planned on running these last couple miles and he's still nowhere in sight. He must have saw an opportunity to put some time in me and he seized it. I'm still feeling great, this is almost too easy, so I'll continue my pace and see if I can run him down.

Mile 18 – 6:30
Mile 19 – 6:31
Mile 20 – 6:20

Wow! What a race although I never did run down my teammate Mike. Despite the rain and windy conditions that couldn't have been a better run. I wish today had been marathon day because even with my pit stop I was still on marathon pace and I was super relaxed. I could have hammered 6 more miles at 6:30 pace. Oh well, I'm pumped about my run today - it was a big confidence booster. I just hope I have another good day in three weeks in Columbus.