Ra-a-a-a-a-a-in, I Don't Mind [Entered 1/21/07]

Saturday was the seventh (or eighth) consecutive day of dreariness outside, but it turned out to be fine for a long run. This was the last super long run before the marathon, a 22 mile tour of most of the AT&T course. It was 40 degrees the entire run, with alternating mild rain, drizzle and mist to spice things up. This time, everyone was prepared, so nobody had to endure conditions that were wildly out of synch with their running apparel choices. I broke out my Gore-Tex running jacket, which is probably 20 years old, mainly so that in case of big rain, I'd be more or less comfortable. At 40 degrees, it was a shorts day, and I wore just the one long-sleeved shirt under the jacket. With gloves and a hat, I was good to go.

We got off pretty much on time, right at 5:45am. While we never got sunshine or very much light at all, it wasn't nearly as bad as last week. The groups did their usual shuffle in the first 4 miles or so, and we were left with a pretty big group. We picked up Renee and Leslie at the first water stop, which would give them an 18 mile day. Amy ran ahead of us, and we never saw her after about 2 miles. The pod of people around me were Brian, Javier, Rachel, Diana, Renee, Leslie, Sue, Grace, Jennifer, and probably others that I'm not remembering right away. Sort of like last week, when everyone is bundled up more, it's harder to get an idea of who's with you.

We were finding our way, pace-wise, for those first 4 miles, letting the faster people blow by us and settling in for the long day's journey. I had those usual long-run jitters, mainly because like most of my gang, I had not taken any serious pre-race carbo-loading or other precautions, except for the usual pasta dinner on Friday night. I had plenty of GU for the journey and all that, but I think we all backed off just a little today as compared to previous longer runs, just to make sure that 22 miles was covered without having to crawl in the last few miles.

We ran up on the pace group ahead of us at the first water/GU/Powerade stop at Enfield and Lake Austin Blvd., and so it was a fairly long stop. I was actually feeling a little warm in that jacket, but thankfully, once we got going again, the north wind and increasing drizzle changed things enough that the jacket was the perfect garment for today's labors. There weren't any serious troubles up Exposition, except that I noticed my heart rate spike up a bit on some of those hills. It settled right back down afterwards, so I took that as a good sign. The super-fast Gazelles whooshed past us on 35th Street as we hit the Mopac bridge. The group stretched out a bit through there, but we yo-yo'ed back together after that second refreshment stop. Today, for some reason, my GU was just a little too sweet for my taste, and I had to struggle with them for the first couple of water stops. By the third stop, everything had settled down, but it was not as easy taking those things at first today! That second stop was on Bull Creek.

Splits miles 1-7.4: 9:41, 9:12, 9:28, 9:09, first water stop at 1:53, then 9:17, 9:10, 9:27, and 0.36 miles at 9:35/mile. Overall running pace a fairly relaxed 9:21, but still well within acceptable pace range. Second water stop 2:21.

After that stop, we were basically done with the obvious hills on the course, and we travelled the next miles on a sneaky slight incline backwards on much of the old marathon course, up Shoal Creek and up Great Northern to the third stop. The conversation along here plummeted to a somewhat salacious level, due to the usual comraderie that occurs when you're sharing the combination of yucky weather and a long training effort. As always, those conversations were to be enjoyed only by those on the run. :-) I offered up "Kung Fu Fighting" in an attempt to lock up people's brains with a catchy tune, but it didn't take today. Oh, well.

Splits miles 8-12: 9:09, 9:08, 9:23, and 0.83 at 9:02/mile. Third water stop 2:46. Overall running pace 9:18. We were staying pretty consistent, and everyone seemed to be moving along pretty well.

The next little stretch took us behind Northcross Mall and then on the long straight stretch going up to Woodrow. That bit from Burnet to Woodrow is another steady incline, which again wasn't severe at all, but just another test for marathon day. Once we reached that corner, though, we enjoyed some modest downhill running for quite a while, all the way to North Loop, really. For some reason, I started feeling a lot better through here, probably because the miles were starting to tick down under double digits, and I was in pretty good shape, leg-wise. The fourth water stop was right before Lamar on North Loop, and by now, I was sort of looking for a spot for a hydration adjustment. That fourth GU taken, and everyone tanked up, off we went. The hills on North Loop weren't that bad, but as I've said before, on race day, it will be a test to see those rollers at that point in the course (around mile 20).

Splits miles 13-15: 9:19, 9:14, 9:19. Fourth water stop 2:07. Overall running pace still around 9:18/mile. Onward, through the fog!

I got the song "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden stuck in my head in here somewhere, which is funny, because I don't own the CD, and wasn't a real Soundgarden fan. Sigh... But there it was, the chorus and some fragments from the verse, over and over and over. At least it distracted me from any discomfort I might have been feeling! :-) Down Guadalupe, and Rachel and I think Diana went straight at that point, cutting off 2, maybe 3 miles by going to 45th and then Duval. They're running Boston, so they didn't need to be doing the full 22 today. I picked it up a little through there, on 46th Street, and found the port-o-john at a construction project, just as I remembered it from the last long run. I dashed in, and then, much happier, dashed on to catch up with the gang as they rolled up Avenue H and turned onto 51st Street. My HR climbed as if I was doing a bigger hill, but it settled down soon enough once I caught up with everyone else. We were getting close now, and it was great to see those miles click down. "Five to Go." "Four to go." We looked around for that fifth water stop, but it wasn't on Red River, and I figured it would be on Duval after the nasty little hill on 38th Street. The group got a little quieter as we tackled that last obstacle, and as a result of that focus, I think we missed the water stop on the other side of 38th near the golf course. Oh, well.

Duval was fun after that hill, and again, we had predominately downhill running, if ever so slight, for quite a while, to the UT campus and then through. Despite missing that last water stop, I felt good, if a bit leg-weary, so I didn't stress out too much about that minor issue. Sure, I had that fifth GU packet in my pocket, but it didn't seem necessary once we got to MLK and then up to Congress Ave., tackling that last modest hill. A bunch of the herd went over and got a bit of water at some coolers set up on Congress, but they were another group's supplies, not ours. It's not a bad thing to take water where you find it somedays, as I'm sure most other groups "borrow" ours under similar circumstances. However, Sue, Jennifer and I skipped that last water stop, since we were under 2 miles to the end of our training day. As we rolled around the Capitol, and then hit the downhill bombing run that is Congress Avenue heading south, we launched into a modest fast finish. We caught most of the lights, and even though there wasn't either a parade or other public event blocking off Congress to traffic, we got a clean shot down to 1st Street. We caught a break crossing Congress, and then zipped along behind the Farmers Market set up on Cesar Chavez. I had to duck under their banner strung across the sidewalk, but managed to do that without hanging myself, so I still had a moderate amount of grace left. We picked it up even more at that point, across the bridge on First, down the ramp where we saw Frank and Amy strolling back to RunTex (they had finished earlier), under the bridge, and finally we were done at the coolers at Auditorium Shores. Nice!

High fives and heartfelt thanks exchanged between the three of us, we were glad to be done. We had all three had really strong runs, and the relief was evident on our faces. After a couple of cups of water, we did some striders (I think we got 5 of them) on the sidewalks and the trail, and then enjoyed the triumphant walk back to RunTex. It's so cool to know that you just ran 22 miles (or 20, or whatever the long run was on your particular day), and you finished strong and uninjured.

Splits for the long finish: 9:15, 9:15, 8:47, 8:55, 8:26, 0.6 miles at 8:39/mile (stoplight), 8:32, and 0.5 miles at 8:06. 22.2 miles at 9:08/mile average running pace. With all stop time included, we were still at 9:35/mile, pretty good.

As usual, I was grateful for the warm and dry clothing I had stashed away in the truck, and Brian and I told more stories as we changed into post-run mode. We decided to go ahead and stretch, although everyone else had either gone or wasn't interested in sticking around in the cold. We found a good spot out of the weather (but still outside) on the south side of RunTex, and did the full routine. Although I was pretty stiff in spots, I'm really glad we did the stretching. I'd be a mess if we hadn't. Alex saw us through the window, and came out into the cold to give us his good news from his 22 miler. We even saw Gilbert and Lisa as they came in and out of the store. What a day!

So, this truly was the peak of the training. Next week, we have the last hard speedwork, really, with the Zilker mile repeats on Monday. 3M half marathon will be just for fun, I guess, and that following week, we'll do a single zippy workout, maybe a tempo run? After that, just 800's, I guess, and the taper whittles away at our overall mileage even more. The hard work is done, and now we just have to make sure we peak for AT&T, letting our bodies build strength and energy reserves through the next 28 days.

Now, will I follow Sean's suggestion to try using the pace groups for the marathon? I've got some time to decide, but since I've run marathons using every conceivable strategy, maybe I owe it to myself to try letting someone else do the mental work of pacing for a change? We'll see...

For the week, 38 miles despite the slushy and icy conditions earlier in the week. Good enough.