Testing the New Freescale Course (16 Miles)

This morning, Gilbert chose for us to explore the new Freescale Marathon course, or at least 15+ miles of it, starting at about the 7 mile mark and exiting the course at the 22 mile mark, give or take a few tenths. It would be a welcome break after many weeks of hilly running on the weekends. After carpooling up to the starting point, we grouped up for the day's exertions. It was a bigger crowd than usual, as more Chicago folks rejoin the fun. Frank, Jan, Sean, and many others were there today for the Tour d'Freescale. We got going on time, right after 6:00am, and soon drifted into our respective bunches. Jan ran ahead with faster folks, as did Joseph and Volel. Our group was Sean, Brian, Jennifer, Rich, Charlene, Julie, Bob, and Amy. We would gather more people along the way, but I digress...

The weather wasn't as wonderful as it has been the last several weeks, but it was a tolerable 70-72 degrees throughout. The sun came out about halfway through, but it never got really bad.

We ran comfortably early on, and negotiated the initial miles as a big group. I felt fine, and there was a lot of talking today. Sooner than expected, we reached Gilbert and the first Powerade stop. Most of us took a GU (or our favorite carb booster), as well. Due to the size of our pace group, it took a while to get finished, but finally after 2:45, we were running again. So far, it felt pretty casual.

Splits miles 1-5.38: 9:48, 9:13, 9:17, 8:44, 8:55, (.38 miles) @ 9:10 pace. Overall, 9:11/mile average.

So far, the course was pretty much like the old course, with a few changes in the industrial park just north of 183. The next chunk featured a large chunk that was just like it's always been, all the way down to Shoal Creek. We ran into another training group doing repeated loops around that neighborhood, encompassing a lot of the IBM 10K course from this year. While we were running along between that group, we picked it up a bit, but finally broke out from them by the time we reached Shoal Creek. There was a group ahead of us with Diana, Gretchen and one other woman who I don't know, and they kept stopping trying to figure out where the course went, so we kept catching up to them. At Hancock, we turned east, and entered the first really new part of the course, going across North Loop towards Duval. This bit featured some mild hills, but they turned out to be a little easier than they looked from the car when I drove the course the other day. They'll be challenging during mile 16-17 of the marathon in February, but just because of where they are. We reached the second Powerade stop having absorbed Diana's group, and they ran with us the rest of the way. The second stop was the one set up by Amy, since it's just down the street from her house. Gilbert was there as well, to cheer us on. I still felt really comfortable, and we were well over halfway done. Cool.

Splits miles 6-9.28: 9:09, 9:12, 8:58, 9:04. Average pace 9:09. Most everybody did their second GU here as well. Another fairly long stop.

After that stop, we continued on North Loop, then it changed names to 53rd Street, and finally it turned south on Duval for a long stretch. My GPS did some weird things on this bit, in the heavy trees losing synch, but catching up when we'd have to wait for a bit at a street to cross traffic. The running was nice and easy still, as we enjoyed the gentle downhill grade for most of Duval and all the way through the UT campus. I was regretting my lack of sunglasses on this run, but other than that, everything was just fine. Dodging around and through some street repairs and street line painting at MLK and San Jacinto, we finally ended up at Gilbert's last Powerade stop about halfway up the nasty little hill right before the Capitol. I had already started going faster once we exited the UT campus, doing the "fast finish" that Gilbert asks us to try. It was time to get going for the last little bit. A last GU with the Powerade, and another 2:45 type stop, and it was time for the finish.

Miles 10-13.6: 8:52, 8:53, 9:01 (primarily downhill miles), 8:35 (includes some faster paced running as I crossed MLK). Overall pace 9:03.

From that water stop, I got cracking, and pushed quickly up the rest of that hill and into the Capitol grounds, which will be a nice change to the course, circling the Capitol building and then flying down the steep drive and down Congress. I thought that no one wanted to go fast at the end, but on Congress, Charlene and another woman caught up with me, and we roared down Congress. Pretty cool. Once we reached 2nd Street, and cut behind City Hall, I pulled away again, feeling really strong, and crossed Cesar Chavez and then the 1st Street bridge in good form. When I got to the stopping point at Auditorium Shores, I saw Gilbert out there with a lot of the faster Gazelles and some of those who didn't do 15 this morning, doing his balance drills. I cut back on the pace a little when I got there (15.5 miles), and did a cooldown lap of sorts around Auditorium Shores. Turns out, I didn't slow up that much, but it seemed a lot slower. It was a great run.

Miles 14-16: 7:25, 7:25, then 8:21 pace for .9 miles. Total mileage 16.4, 8:49 overall running pace. With all the traffic crossing time and water stop time included, overall actual pace for the morning was 9:26/mile.

I was happy with how well I did on the "fast finish," and I felt good out there. I really think all of the hard work is starting to show up in the long runs, and that's very gratifying.

I jogged back to RunTex, and grabbed my post-run gear out of Jan's car, and joined up with the stretching posse about 10 minutes into their routine. Patrick was nice enough to lead the group in my absence. It was a nice morning to stretch, and we had some fun out there. Jan drove Diana, Sean and I up to our cars at the top of the course, and it was a day complete.

I'm looking forward to the full day off on Sunday, as well as my virtual spectating of the NYC marathon in the morning. The weather looks to be a little warm for NYC, which is too bad, but that's just the kind of thing you can't control.

For the week, just over 43 miles running, complete compliance with gym workouts, and 5 days running. Nice. Next week starts with our first pace run in a while, the 5 EZ, 5 Pace variety. I might try the split weight routine on Monday/Tuesday, as well, doing the leg stuff after the pace run. Maybe. It would be nice to get an extra bit of rest on Tuesday before the speedwork on Wednesday. We'll see.