Better Than Fridays Run - My First 21 Miler!

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Today's run was much better than Friday's run. I knew that Friday's bad run was not signs of things to come, but rather just a bad day with bad planning, but it is always nice to have that confirmation run the next time you go out. Today's 21 miler was that run.

I had a very long day yesterday, leaving the house at 7:30 am for Birmingham, AL for my daughter Payton's XC meet and straight to Commerce, GA for my other daughter Ashlee's Band Competition with only a 5 minute pit stop in between. The day didn't end for me till almost midnight, after a total of 8 hours driving between the two trips!

Based on the schedule yesterday and the time we got home I knew 4:00 am was not going to happen for a 20+ miler before Sunday School and Church. I decided that a 5:00 am wake up would have to do and that I would just go to Church. 5:00 am came and every ounce of my body wanted to stay in bed instead of getting up to run. I talked myself into another hour of sleep (it wasn't hard) and went back to bed. I woke up again just before 6:00 and drug myself out of bed..... this time I knew I had to do it if I wanted to stay on track with my Marathon Training Schedule.

I got ready to go and ate a couple small whole wheat bagels, drank some Gatorade and water and headed out the door about 6:20. I was pretty sure that this was going to put me back home just before 10:00 am, but I figured I could sneak into church a little late this one time.

I carried a water bottle and a bottle of Gatorade. I also had a pack of sport beans in the armband with my cell phone. I started off nice and slow and decided this would not be the day to try to lower that pace at all, but to rather just get the run in. I sipped on the Gatorade every two miles until it was finished at mile 14. I pulled out the sport beans at mile 16 and continued the every two mile hydration with the water bottle.

The first 9 miles of the run were fairly slow, hovering at a pace between 10:00 min and 11:00 min. This was the slowest I had run in a long time.... even on my long runs! Following the 9th mile I sped up a bit and was running more of the pace that have in the past. The last couple miles were difficult mentally, but I kicked them up a bit because I just wanted to finish. I ended on a mile with an 8:06 pace, and a negative split on the entire run to boot! So far this run has been at the fastest pace of all my long runs since hitting the 14 mile mark - not by much, but still at a faster pace.

Runs like this are the ones that give you the confidence to keep going! (that and the community and comments received on this blog, on Facebook and Twitter)

Just a couple quick notes:

Payton ran a good race yesterday - she finished 7th for her team and 32 overall with a time of 21:46:52 - not her best time, but very respectable.... and faster than me :) She is running in the #7 spot on Varsity and if she keeps consistent over the next couple races she will be running in State!

Ashlee, my oldest daughter is in the Color Guard in the Marching Band - her team won a lot of trophy's last night at the Band Competition including the biggest trophy :) with an overall win!!

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow - virtual4now