Tour d'Freescale (part Trois)

Today, we took our third jaunt over the new Freescale Marathon course. Due to Christmas, we ran a day early, and even so, we had a good turnout. I think we had all of our pace crew except for Charlene, who was off for the holidays. Richard joined us today for the whole run, along with a new Gazelle, Rachel. Amy, Shannon, Rich, Jennifer and Brian completed the crew. Erine ran with us until the first water stop, and then scooted ahead with Volel.

After the usual carpool up to the 4 mile (approx) mark of the new course, we bailed out and got ready to run. Conditions were ideal again, with clear skies and temps around 47 for the entire run. It was a day to run in shorts, hat and gloves, along with one or two shirts, depending on your tendency to get chilled. Nice.

Gilbert sent us off, with the usual suggestion to finish fast over the last 3-5 miles of the route. I trailed the entire pack for the first mile, slowly catching up with my group as I chatted with Erine and Rachel. The first miles were uneventful, and we arrived at the first Powerade stop on Braker feeling very good. Most of us took a GU there, and we were off.

Splits miles 1-4.5: 9:33, 9:28, 9:15, 9:13, .5 miles at 9:08/mile pace. Overall, 9:21/mile. Perfect.

The next section featured the only scary part of the run, along the rest of Braker and on Burnet, which are heavily trafficked, even early in the morning. We ran way over in the grass when we could, and single file along the side of the road when we couldn't. I know I was relieved to turn into the industrial park off of Burnet. A nagging need for a hydration adjustment led me to a convenient shrubbery in the office park, and I spent the next mile catching back up with the crew, so I got a quick(er) mile in there as a result. Under 183, and then onto Shoal Creek, we made our way to Gilbert and the second Powerade stop. Still all good. Felt comfortable, no pains or worries. Took second GU, and it was time to go.

Splits miles 5-8.6: 9:26, 9:39 (hydration adjustment in this mile), 8:43 (catching back up), 9:23. Overall, 9:19/mile. With first water stop, overall was 9:36/mile. Good work.

Now we were well onto the part of the course that has been used for several years now, along the railroad tracks and down Shoal Creek. Familiar turf, and I think we all relaxed through here. We enjoyed the general downhill trend through this part of the course, and turned onto the new West to East corridor, on North Loop/53rd Street. This was right into the rising sun, and it had the modest hills in it as well, so it was sort of tough to maintain focus with those things working against us. We successfully found the turn onto Duval, and later found Gilbert for the last Powerade stop. My last GU, and it was time for the "fast finish."

Splits miles 9-15: 9:16, 9:03, .4 miles at 9:16 (traffic stop), 9:16, 9:22 (10 seconds standing at a light in this split), 9:02, .8 miles at 8:59/mile to water stop. Overall running pace 9:16. With first two water stops and traffic stop included, pace was 9:39. Still good. Now, what did we have for the fast finish?

Leaving the water stop, we cruised for a couple of tenths of a mile, and then Shannon, Amy and Rich darted ahead across a busy street, and the rest of us were stuck waiting on a light. By now, the cars were moving with a purpose, and we couldn't risk trying to go across without the light. We watched our friends go off in the distance, getting almost a minute lead on us due to the light. Once we got across the street, we started closing on them a little, but at pretty much every major street, we got delayed by lights and/or traffic. No big deal, I guess, but it sort of changed the dynamics of the finish. I started pushing more and more as we went through the UT campus, and after another traffic snarl at MLK, I picked it up into another gear, going up the hill to 12th Street and the turn into the Capitol grounds. I pulled away from most of the folks there, but Richard came up after a few minutes. I finally caught Amy and Shannon at the 11th Street entrance to the Capitol, and from there, Shannon and I ran it in pretty aggressively. Richard hung in there as well, and ended up finishing right around us, with Amy just behind that. Shannon and I blasted down the trail, up the ramp on the Pfluger bridge, and finally turned for home on the south side of the trail. I never let up, and we crossed in good fashion. We waited just a minute for Amy to finish, and then we did a cooldown lap of Auditorium Shores with Rich, Amy and Shannon. It was a great finish to a very good long run.

Splits miles 16-finish: 8:22, .5 miles at 8:11, 7:38, 7:09 (watch said 6:47, but I think that was wrong...sub 7:00 pace?), 7:12 to the finish. Cooldown was .9 miles at 9:15 pace. Overall pace for 20.37 miles of running was 8:53/mile, after the fast finish. Some very good splits at the end, that's for sure. With water stops, traffic stops, etc., included, overall pace was still good at 9:24/mile.

We knocked out 5 striders after that, and then had a nice stretching session in the morning sun at RunTex. Everyone did a great job today, I think we all came away with a very good experience on the second 20+ miler on the schedule. For the record, when I manipulated the data points in Topo Fusion, I came up with 20.7 miles for the day, but I just couldn't figure out where to insert this mystery extra distance, so I left it at 20.37.

Now, I get to go wrap presents and do that Christmas thing. Also, I need to make the Chex Mix in the enormous quantities that I usually produce. The fudge turned out great, if you're interested.

Gilbert told us that Monday will be an easy day with some balance drills and that sort of thing afterwards, instead of the 1000m repeats listed on the schedule. That's fine with me. I still plan on an easy afternoon run on Christmas for an hour, just to celebrate the holiday after the opening of gifts has run its course.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever you prefer. What a gift I've received with the great year of running I've had! Anything else will be icing on the cake.