Pace Run

This Labor Day morning, we gathered at RunTex at 6:30 am for a couple of differing lengths of pace runs. The fall marathoners would use this as a last time trial over a 10 mile distance to test their speed fitness over a longer course, and they did a warmup and drills session as they plan to do on their marathon race day. The rest of us did 7 miles, with 2 theoretically "easy" paced miles and 5 fast ones. Since I was going to do the shorter distance with an easy start, I skipped the warmup mile and drills, and waited for the start of the run, enjoying the morning. Margaret showed up to run, and so we decided to be partners for the 7 mile pace run. Gilbert told the marathoners that he expected them to be much faster this time than a previous 10 mile pace run, and sent them off, counterclockwise on the Longhorn Dam loop. Margaret and I went clockwise on the I-35 7-mile loop, starting a little ahead of the standard starting line.

It was a nice morning today, fairly cool (74 degrees?) and clear sunshine skies. Starting the run at 7:00 am was dramatically different than our usual 6:00 start, but it was really nice out there. We probably started out faster than true "easy" pace, and reached the water stop at Mopac averaging around 9:00 miles. After a quick water stop, we were off again, but at about the 2.5 mile mark, Margaret told me to go on, that she wasn't feeling great, and so I took off from there. I didn't look at the watch from there on, just running by feel.

I had hoped to get to the I-35 bridge before encountering the fast-moving marathoners coming the other direction, but the first fast pack got me at about my 4.25 mile mark, and their 5.75 mark. After the "shirtless ultrafit" pack, I saw Kenny, and then Alex, the fastest runner wearing a shirt this morning, and then Frank and Jason and all the rest of the gang. Jan was running with Dick, who was probably a good pacer for her for the first 7 miles of her run. After all that excitement, I think I probably pushed it while I was seeing all those guys. A quick Gatorade stop at the I-35 bridge with Bernard (Gilbert's cousin) manning the coolers, and I was off for the last couple of miles. It was getting to be pretty hard work, but I pushed up the Riverside hill, and tried to carry the momentum of the backside downhill there for the rest of the run.

There were a couple of folks to chase down as I went down Riverside and then turned onto the trail for the big finish, which helped distract me. Pushing all the way home, I finished nice and strong. It was a very good run for me.

Splits? 9:05, 8:59, (.25 miles) at 9:01, for 2.25 "easy" miles at 9:02 pace. Then, after water, I went 8:11, during which I started my solo running portion of the day, then 7:38, 7:28, another gatorade stop, then 7:28 and 7:47 to the finish. All told, 7.04 miles at 8:08 average pace, which was moving along pretty well for me. The faster miles were 4.8 miles at 7:44 pace, nice and solid work there. If you add the water stop time, overall pace was down to 8:28/mile, and the faster miles with their lone water stop would go up to 8:00 pace. All the numbers were quite good.

Once the marathoners started coming in, it was apparent that everyone had really blasted this time trial / race. Frank and Jan knocked a ton of time off, as did virtually everyone I talked to. Alex had a really good 7 miler, easily the fastest he's run on a longer run since before he got hurt in late May.

I saw Mark Gray, an old friend from Lufkin, at the water coolers at Auditorium Shores, and we had a nice long talk there. It was such a nice morning that it just felt like a good opportunity to hang out. He's recovering from a broken ankle he suffered while rock climbing, but he looked pretty good on his feet. Hopefully, he'll recover fully from it so he can enjoy his running.

Gilbert was excited about everyone's times today, and congratulated the herd on a job well done. Exhorting us to go and party the rest of the day in celebration, we were finished. Frank, Kelly, Alex, Jan and I went and stretched afterwards by RunTex. It was apparent to me that everyone was enjoying the morning, and no one was in a big hurry to go home. Finally, we all headed back to our respective abodes, another good day of running in the books. Alex was off to the gym, of course, for more fun, but the rest of us had had quite enough for one day.