21 Mile Long Run

Well, today was a really nice run. It was a perfect running morning, crisp, clear, temps in the 40's and maybe warming to the low 50's by the end of the run. Just a great day to be out there.

We gathered at RunTex and carpooled up to the start of the Freescale course this morning, and this time I didn't have quite as many people in the vehicle. Seemed that there were fewer of the super fast people than normal today. Gilbert told us to go at least 20 miles, and to add a mile or two easy at the end if we wanted to bump up to 22. He wanted us to pick it up for three miles at the end, mile 17-20, but to run nice and easy for the rest of it. G was doing a rolling water stop in his truck for us this morning, so there were lots of chances to check in with him.

Diana either was moved or decided to move up to the faster mid-pack crew (Frank and Alex's people), so she has "graduated" from our gang, I guess. Greta was out of town. However, Liliana decided to run with us, since she is nursing a slight injury, and Jan joined us, along with our buddy Henry. The Alex gang wasn't going that much faster than us early, which was unusual. We headed off after hearing a make-believe starter's horn, and chugged up the sneaky hill that is mile 1. Gilbert drove behind us with his flashers on, to keep us safe on the busy road there, even though it was just after 6:00 am. It was kinda cool to have that treatment. We soon organized into a pack of Liliana, Henry, Jan, Tracy, Patrick and myself. A few turns later, we were in the industrial park section of the course. We ran up on the Alex/Frank group, who were huddled over a map in the darkness. I gave them some help, as well as Gilbert, and we moved on. Patrick got excited and was running with those folks, and as he pulled away, I tried to call for him, but he just kept going. I wished him luck (mentally), and we moved to mile 3 and 4. As we turned south onto United, we saw the faster guys running the wrong way ahead of us, but they didn't hear us when we yelled at them, and they ended up running an extra .5-.75 miles with their mistaken route. Suddenly, we were the lead group, and that made us laugh. We rolled up to Gilbert at the 5 mile mark and Powerade stop, and made a pretty efficient water stop and clothing drop, and rolled on. First 5 miles or so at about 10:07/mile pace, which was about perfect. HR numbers were slumbering in the happy zone, so I was feeling very good about the run so far. Took a GU here, and we were off.

We were caught and passed by the faster folks at about mile 7 or so. Patrick thought for a second about staying with us, but he just couldn't stand it, and ran away with those speedy people. They again had problems with the route ahead of us, and I made a mistake and insisted that the route went one way, which turned out wrong. My way was the old way from 2003, not the revised course from 2004. Oops. It turned out to be maybe slightly further my way, but not a significant amount. Turning east on 45th Street, we were nearly blinded by the rising sun, but fought through that and met up with Gilbert at Powerade Stop #2 at about 10 miles. Another GU, and we continued our journey. About 10 miles, almost exactly 10:00/mile overall pace. Still right on schedule. Gretchen, from the faster people, joined us somewhere in here, just chilling with us after the early extra mileage from their geographical mistake.

The next 6 miles or so featured much heavier traffic than usual for this early in the morning, but we dodged it without too much trouble, and wound our way down Congress Avenue, past the capitol, onto 6th Street, and finally hit Lamar. There, Henry and Gretchen turned back towards Town Lake, since Gretchen was shooting for 18 miles, and Henry wanted 15-17 miles. We were now a foursome: Jan, Jay, Liliana and Tracy. A short while later, we reached the last Powerade stop (my last GU here, too). Gilbert was there, and he told us to pick up the pace at the turnaround out on Lake Austin Blvd, and to run those last 3 miles faster, then adding extra easy miles after that if we felt like it. We were at about 16 miles, average pace 9:54/mile.

Tracy saw some other running buddies across the street, and joined them for the rest of the run. Liliana was going to run the whole run easy this time. Jan and I moved out Lake Austin Blvd, but I pulled away slowly from her as I began my stretch push. The mile out to the turnaround was slightly pushed, at 9:21, and then I turned for home. I was a little tired, but resolved to pick it up on the way back, even if I was running those miles alone. I zoomed past several other running groups on the way back, knocking off the 3 fast miles in 8:19, 8:33, and 8:08, finishing on the First Street bridge. As the watch told me I had finished the Speed Run, I eased the throttle back, and did a nice and easy loop around Auditorium Shores and back to RunTex. That last easy mile or so was at a nice 10:15 pace.

I felt pretty darned good about this one. Another really good long run, 21.3 miles, average pace 9:41/mile. Slightly slower than some of our long runs, but no less of an effort. Coming at the end of the long string of long races alternating with longer and longer training runs, it's not surprising that we were a little slower today.

We had a good stretching session, which Gilbert left me to administer. He had to get on the road to Dallas, where he's racing the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon tomorrow (Go, Gilbert!!). Henry was kind enough to drive some of us up to the start of the course to retrieve our vehicles, and we called it a day.

It was a good day at the running office. Now we get some nice semi-relaxed weekends during the Holidays, before cranking it back up on January 2nd, 2005.