Saturday, it was about perfect for a long, long training run. Temperatures were in the low to mid-40's as the run progressed, and it was overcast, which kept the sun from heating us up. Very nice. On the program for today was a long run, 20 miles for those of us on the slightly longer long run track. There were 17 and 18.5 mile options available, as well, but all of the routes gave the participants a good taste of the most challenging bits of the new AT&T course.
We got started at 5:45am, and this time we included the first 4 miles of the new course for the first time in a training run. The course starts on the bridge at Town Lake on Congress, and heads south on S. Congress to Oltorf, across to S. First, and then back north to Barton Springs Road, then west to Lamar and across Town Lake again. That's the first 4 miles. There's a pretty good hill in the first mile of the race, but since we'll all be settling into our marathon at that point, it won't be that much of a bother on race day. At first, I thought I might be running with just Amy, since some of my regular long run partners were either running other distances or were with the Boston training crew. That would have been just fine, of course, but as the 18.5 mile people cut off the course at Elizabeth Street, there were 6 of us continuing on for the full Monty (so to speak). By the time we came back around and hit Barton Springs, we also gathered up Eric, who would end up doing 18.5 and finishing with us. We also had about 6 people who were doing 11 miles today, and they certainly helped shoulder the pacing load for the first 8 miles or so.
As we reached Austin High School, it was still pretty dark with the overcast skies, but we spotted the coolers okay, and tanked up on water/Powerade and GU, for those who were packing sugar today. We had settled into a good pace by then, and all systems were still "go." I was sort of holding back early, knowing that we had a long day ahead of us, so I wasn't at the front of the pack too much. It was much nicer to tag along at the back of the pack for now.
Splits miles 1-5: 10:13, 9:26, 9:02, 8:54, 8:52. Rest stop 2:19. Total running pace 9:17/mile.
The very familiar Veterans/Lake Austin portion of the course came next. The shorter distance people picked up the pace there for a little while, but settled down once the hills started on Enfield. As we reached Exposition for the journey north, we waved goodbye to the 11 milers, and almost immediately found the next water/Powerade/GU stop. We were passed there by faster and celebrity runners, including Bernard, Gilbert and Pete, and a pack including Paul and Ironwoman Desiree Ficker (birthday girl, as it turned out). Needless to say, we never saw them again on the road. That "whoosh!" sound we heard was them flying away up the hills. :-)
Splits miles 6-8: 9:12, 8:39, 8:46 (hilly stuff commences). Rest stop 2:03. Overall running pace down to 9:08/mile.
I suppose I started helping out more on the pace work through the next stretch, as we went up Exposition, over on 35th, and through the zigzag turns to Bull Creek. I infected the group with Prince's "Little Red Corvette," which is just catchy enough that it stuck in people's heads for quite a while. At this point, our crew had settled in with Chris (a new guy that just ran the Ironman in Kona, as well), Eric, Stephanie, Melissa, Amy, and Marty. I'm pretty sure that was the gang. We did a good job of maintaining a steady pace through this part, and were rewarded when the course levelled out on Bull Creek for quite a while. We left the AT&T course at Hancock, and took North Loop across town like last year's course did, and got water/powerade/GU near Lamar Street. We were doing pretty well, and personally, I felt very good. Off we went...
Splits miles 9-12.5: 9:09, 9:02, 9:07, 9:05, and 0.56 miles at 9:07/mile. Eric and Chris did a lot of the pacework through here, and they did a great job of being human running metronomes! Overall pace still in the 9:07/mile range, without stop time. Rest stop there was 2:36.
We were back on the marathon course by now, and the next chunk featured all the many turns found in the back end of the course. It's mostly flat to gently downhill, but there are a few little inclines that will be challenging in the real race, mainly since they will come pretty late. A big pack of Rogue runners swarmed around us as we turned onto 46th Street, doing some sort of marathon pace run, but they weren't moving that much faster than we were at the time. There was some good-natured banter back and forth between the groups, but they had a water stop on 46th, so we lost them almost as soon as they caught up with us.
When we got to 38th Street, we had the option of running on a fairly rocky trail alongside the golf course or running on 38th Street, which doesn't have a sidewalk the whole way. I went for the rocky road, and enjoyed the change in running terrain after all those miles on asphalt so far. Most didn't share my enjoyment of the rocks and hills, but we all managed to get to Duval easily enough. The last water/powerade/GU stop was there, and from that point it was "fast finish" time. I still felt pretty darned good, and my HR numbers were right on the button, so unless I blew up in the last 4 miles, it was going to be another quality long run for me.
Splits miles 13-16: 8:59, 8:50, 8:57, 8:51. Water stop time 2:35. Overall, we had whittled running pace down to 9:04/mile.
Now it was time for a fast finish. Eric and Chris joined me, and we soon had the pace knocked down quite a bit. Since the course was favorable for the first mile or so, it felt pretty comfortable, even though we had really kicked it up. We were even talking a little bit. Well, I got Chris to talking about the Ironman a little bit, and I mostly listened. Anything to try and handicap the stronger runner... :-) Up MLK, onto Congress, and that was the last of the inclines. On race day, this would be mile 25-26. We caught our breath a little bit as we circled the Capitol, and Chris had to stop to tie a shoe. So, Eric and I carried on, down Congress, which will be great on Race Day. We caught all the lights as we rolled down Congress, and except for a spot where I tried to cross Congress and swerved back into Eric, we made it without incident down to 2nd Street. I had drawn up the route maps, and had everyone taking 2nd Street over to Guadalupe and then down across the 1st Street bridge. But, Eric talked me into going straight to Cesar Chavez and then over to the 1st Street bridge instead. It might have chopped a tenth of a mile off our day, but I sort of felt guilty about it after we were done. Chris rejoined us on the bridge, and we ran pretty hard all the way to Auditorium Shores for the big finish. Done!
Splits miles 17-20: 7:49, 7:44, 7:21, and 0.17 miles at 7:04/mile pace. Total distance "only" 19.72, as I cut an early corner trying to catch up with everyone at the first (went over on Riverside instead of Barton Springs Road), and cut that last corner a little. Shame on me. Overall running pace a nice 8:50/mile. With water stop time, pace still 9:19/mile. It was a great running day, and it was fun to get to know Eric and Chris a little better as we rambled along.
Gilbert was there taking people through balance drills, but I got in a couple of striders on the grass, and then did two more striders as I made my way back to the car to get my stretching stuff. Eventually, we got a good crowd for the stretching, and worked all the way through the full regimen. After such a long run, stretching is a must.
I had to miss the post-stretching breakfast with Frank, Jan, Brad, Lisa and Alex, which was a drag, but it was still a good start to a full day for me. I sure hope these good long runs are a sign that something good is going to happen in February on marathon race day!
For the week, a modest 32 miles, as I missed all the recovery runs. I need to get back with the program, but so far, it doesn't seem to be affecting my training in any large negative way. Fingers crossed...
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