Long Train Runnin' [Entered 4/12/06]

Saturday, it was time for the longest post-Freescale run of the spring season thus far. Gilbert had groups going all different directions, but my pace group decided to do a different route for most of them, offering lots of different places to modify the final distance for each individual. It was a good turnout on a nice cool morning, temps in the high 50's at the start. Rachel and Jennifer couldn't be there, but everyone else joined me for the fun and games. We also had a new guy, Steve, who turned out to be a really fast guy trying to get in a nice slow long run.

At any rate, the route was not as challenging as the Bonnell runs of past weeks, as we went out on the trail, and continued past the Longhorn Dam to the extra loop that starts at Riverside and Grove. Conversation was fun, and the pace was manageable for everyone in the group. We stopped briefly at the 4 mile mark for Powerade and GU, and then journeyed on. The portion of the extra loop that is along the river downstream of Longhorn Dam is very peaceful, and it doesn't feel like you're even in a city. Just trees and trail for a mile or so. We eventually popped up along the softball fields there, and under the tunnel through the dam. Shannon started feeling like going faster along here, so we picked up the pace up and over the dam chasing her down. The next water stop was along the trail at a convenient fountain, about 8 miles into the run.

Heading back under I-35, people started making their decisions on final run length. Brian, Shannon and Rich pulled ahead with Emily to accelerate to their finish, cutting across the Pfluger bridge, I think. Amy, Steve and Richard stayed with me to the Mopac bridge, where we grabbed another cup or two of water and my final GU. Amy and Steve had had enough, and headed back at that point for around 13.5 miles. Richard stayed with me, and we followed the trail that winds northward underneath Mopac towards Enfield. We did some cross country type running to negotiate some barriers that were put up along the trail where it had washed out last year under the heavy rains in April. When we got to Enfield, Richard's calf was bothering him, so he turned back at that point. It was nice to have company so deep into the run, that's for sure!

From there on, I was running alone, but it turned out to be pretty fun. After getting up the rolling terrain of Enfield, I turned south onto Exposition, and found myself running against the oncoming tide of 5K runners doing the Fertile Hope run. I didn't know it at the time, but Lance Armstrong was in the race, finishing 8th. I was looking for Gazelles and just missed him entirely. I suppose Lance just looked like all the other really fast guys at the front of the race. :-) There were lots of Gazelles in the race, most of them in the top 1/3 of the race. By the time I got back down to Lake Austin Blvd., that excitement was over, and I had roughly 3 miles to go.

I picked it up a little bit for the last miles, but my legs were a bit more tired than usual at the end of a long run, so I didn't go sub-8:00 or anything like that. It was strange to follow the trail detour at Point Neff, but they've done a good job of putting down a level running surface along the soccer fields at Zilker. Once I was done, I saw Alex and Frank, who had done the same route, only slightly faster. We knocked out a few strides, and then I found my way over to the stretching crew. Gilbert had started them off, and I was able to step in and finish up the morning's festivities with everyone.

It was a really solid long run, 16.5 miles. Average overall running pace 9:00/mile, and with water stop time added, pace was still 9:19/mile.

Splits: 9:41, 9:34, 9:22, 9:15, 0.4 miles at 9:21, (water/GU stop), 8:44, 8:44, 9:15, 9:11, 0.4 miles at 8:53 (water stop), 9:16, 8:46, 0.68 miles at 8:58 (last water/GU stop), 9:29, 8:40, 8:26, 8:24, 8:14.