16 Miler

This morning, the Gazelles got together for our 16 miler. The course was the last 16 miles of the Freescale marathon course, which made for an interesting dress rehearsal. We carpooled up to the starting point at 45th and Lamar, and grouped up at 6:00 am. Diana and Tracy were there, and we added Patrick, a new guy, to our happy band. Patrick has been with Gilbert only since Monday, but he's been doing long runs on his own. After a quick stop for hydration adjustment at the Starbucks right there, we were off. We rolled through the first 3 miles of the route, warming up and easing into pace. First 3 miles 10:42, 10:22, 10:05, and another .7 miles at 10:08 pace to the port-o-potties near the Capitol. After a short stop there, we were off again, down Congress, to 6th Street. It was still dark through here, of course, which made for a surreal experience. We rolled it all the way to Mangia Pizza at Lake Austin Blvd, where Gilbert had put the water out for the first water stop. Those couple of miles were 9:44 and 9:57. Another quick water stop, maybe 2 minutes, where I took my first GU of the morning.

The next portion of the course was an out-and-back to the turnaround on Lake Austin Blvd, which we knocked out in 9:34 and 9:43. We were starting to pick it up pretty good through those 4 miles since the potty break, and were at mile 8, the halfway point. Overall pace for first 8 miles was 10:03, pretty much right on target for us.

Refreshed after a second water stop on the way back, we headed for Cesar Chavez street. Rolled down the hill, and along by the high school track. We stopped a time or two through here for various short bathroom breaks, and then reached the last Gilbert water stop, which featured red Powerade. Despite our start and stop approach through this stretch, we knocked out those 2 miles at 9:05 average pace, really quick, but there was a good bit of the hesitation blues through there.

At the water stop, Tracy said that she'd back off the pace for a while, and run the rest of the course a bit easier than we were pressing. Patrick stayed with us for the time being. We got started again, and ran a fun mile up Cesar Chavez, as we talked about how crowded with spectators that stretch got during the actual race. It funnels down like the Tour de France. But not today.

After a 9:28 mile 11, we found ourselves in the midst of a 10K race. The Texas Twister 10K was using a fair chunk of our route as part of its course, much to our surprise. So we fed into the stream of 10K runners, actually passing a bunch of them, which was a boost to our spirits. We stayed with them for the better part of the next 2 miles, and unwittingly picked up our pace as a result. It was the mile 2 to mile 4 portion of their race. Our mile 12 was 8:44 pace, way too fast, and the next .8 miles was at 8:56 pace, as we found the last water fountain on our route. We stopped to hydrate, and I took my last GU. I was feeling pretty strong, but I could tell that I was starting to tire a bit. Tracy caught back up with us at that point, and she and Patrick decided to finish together (his previous long run was 12 miles on his own), and Diana and I made the other team. We were off to finish this thing.

The next mile featured the span of Longhorn Dam, and then climbed up a short hill to turn onto Riverside Dr. That is a tough spot for me during the marathon, for some reason. Anyway, we cruised through here, picking up the pace again, and I was starting to worry that I'd have to tell Diana to go on ahead. The pace was starting to wear me out a little. It was a little warm, but there was enough of a breeze and overcast to keep things okay. Next mile was 8:44, then .8 miles to the I-35 overpass at a 8:36 pace. We were hauling butt this late in a long run, that's for sure, through a hilly section as well. I was starting to have real doubts on the longer of the two Riverside hills, and told Diana to go on ahead if she wanted to, but she said she was working hard, too, so we hung together for the last push. After the I-35 overpass, we rolled up the last hill, and thankfully headed down the other side for the home stretch. We had only one mile to go, and I was starting to work really hard. I wasn't looking at the watch, but I knew that I was starting to breathe very hard while we charged down Riverside. Finally, we reached RunTex and the end of our journey, and I was glad to see it end.

It was a very pleasant surprise, and relief, to see the reason that I was huffing and puffing so much was our 8:01 pace coming down Riverside, and a last sprint of 300 yards at 7:41 pace! We had absolutely flown over the last part of the run, and that was way cool. Second 8 miles of this run was a big negative split pace of 8:48/mile, which was sort of unbelieveable. Overall pace for the 16 miler was 9:26 pace, very solid indeed.

I was still trying to catch my breath as we started the stretching session with Gilbert, trying to drink my Endurox while doing the first couple of stretches. I was actually a bit dizzy during some parts of the stretching, but by the time we were done, I had started to recover better. I bought a bottle of Powerade at RunTex just to give me a little more replenishment, since I was pretty drained.

Since we had hammered the end of the run as much as we did, I'm not too worried about my fatigue after the run. We ran the last 8 miles at a pace faster than I did the Pervasive 10 Mile race last weekend, after all. This wasn't nearly as tough of a course as last week, but it was a 16 mile run all the same.

A really great day at the running office, once again. Now, I just need to eat and drink all afternoon and evening long, to get back to normal.