20 Mile Long Run

I guess the title of this entry is redundant, but what the heck. It was a glorious morning to do a long long long run, sunny and cool (45 rising to maybe 55 degrees), with a steady breeze that helped keep us cool. The Gazelles met at RunTex at 5:45 am to load up and carpool to the start of this morning's 20 miler, just north of the 6 mile point of the Freescale course, and we were to run the last 20 miles of the course. More reconnaissance running. My truck got severely loaded up. By the time people stopped climbing in and around the Tahoe, I think I ended up with 10 people and a water cooler. Gilbert called it a "Burundi Taxi," due its overloaded nature. I suppose we are a close group, right? We arrived without incident to the start point, and grouped up. The instructions were to run this one nice and easy, and pick it up only for the last 15-20 minutes of the run. That was okay by me.

My group was Diana, Greta, Tracy and me. Patrick was in Louisiana or something like that on a family trip. We set out after everyone else had left, waiting for a moment to let Diana get organized and get all her stuff ready. We eased out of the chute just after 6:10 am, and started running in the pre-dawn darkness. We made it as far as the first water stop without too much in the way of stoppage, chatting with a fellow walking in his neighborhood, and I pointed out spots that usually have bands on Race Day. Diana found out at that first water stop (about 4 miles in) that she had not packed her Power Bar, so she would have to purchase one on the road, so to speak. I did a GU at that water stop, and we started back up. First 4.67 miles at average pace of 9:55/mile, right on schedule. My HR numbers were very good, easily in the aerobic zone as we tooled along on the mostly downhill portion of the early race course. My legs were a little tired still from the aggressive fartlek workout that I did on Thursday, Diana had done the 400m repeat workout with Gilbert on Thursday, and Tracy had run the Turkey Trot 5 miler here, so we all had some fatigue in our legs.

The next segment of the day went from 45th and Lamar all the way to 6th and Congress. It is a downhill section except for a nasty steep little hill right at the half marathon mark of the Freescale course. We flew through this 3.8 miles at an average of 9:35/mile, but it wasn't a hard push, mostly accelerating just due to topographical assistance. We stopped at a Starbucks there to let Diana go in and buy some food to replace her missing Power Bar, and that really hit the spot for her. We took off down 6th Street.

The next bit was 1.8 miles, average pace 9:51, to the Powerade stop on Lake Austin Blvd, just past Magnolia Cafe. I took my second GU there, and drank down a good bit of Powerade. While we were there, waiting on some bathroom breaks and more food purchasing, Frank was coming down the return leg of the out and back section, and we chatted briefly. He was having a good day as he returned to the regular marathon training after his NYC marathon. My group gathered again, and we headed out Lake Austin Blvd to the turnaround and back.

The out and back miles were 10:06 into the wind and 9:27 with it to our backs, and then we headed down to Cesar Chavez / First Street and the next Powerade stop. Those miles were mostly flat, but the nice downhill trend had ended for the course by now. Rolling along, that was 2 miles, average at 9:33/mile. More Powerade and my last GU at that stop, since it was the last official water stop for the run. This was at the 20 mile mark of the marathon course. Greta pulled off at this point, since she was only going 15 miles, and we carried on as a trio, heading East.

We were all feeling a little beaten up during this stretch, trying to get past some discomfort and fatigue to finish the run in solid fashion. There was a short rest stop again in this chunk, but we stayed together to the end of the Longhorn Dam. Short stop there for a last water stop, 3.04 miles at 9:37 average pace. It was time for the home stretch. We all basically decided to run at different rates for the last 3 or 4 miles, and Diana took off ahead of me over the dam. I followed along, moving quicker, but not crazy fast, and Tracy was just behind me. As I ran across the dam, it was amazing to hear the roar of the water surging through the open floodgates below us, and to watch the water rumble and crash on the Town Lake side of things. Water is a powerful thing when angry.

Anyway, Diana was about 20 yards ahead of me, but I kept that distance gap as I dashed up the short hill on Pleasant Valley and made the turn towards Riverside drive. At about the 24 mile mark, Diana crossed the street to my side and turned back to join me for the last push. I was both thankful for her company for those last hard miles, and worried because now we'd race in together. Mile 25 is comprised of two long hills, neither steep, but both nice tests that late in a marathon. We pushed up those hills in strong fashion, and then enjoyed the steep downhill on the backside of the last hill, the 25 mile mark being on the last hill. I knew we were in the homestretch now, and relaxed into the final push. We made most of the lights, and were able to keep running hard to the finish. We both felt great to be done, and actually felt pretty good. Not nearly as exhausted as on the 16 miler, so we did a much better job of pacing the early miles. Our last miles went 8:46, 8:16, and 7:41 for just over a mile on the last stretch. Average pace for final accelerated miles was 8:13/mile for 3.07 miles.

Overall, we ran 20.4 miles in 9:30/mile average pace. It was a really good run, and I was happy to see that we were mostly in aerobic HR zone for me, until the last 3 mile push, which was to be expected. This was a much better executed long run, and another good one like the Bonnell-2222 long run two weeks ago. If they keep going like this, then I'll have to think even bigger thoughts regarding race pace for Freescale.

A good stretching session after the run worked out most of the stiffness from the hard effort, and I've spent much of the rest of the day refueling the running machine.