I survived my longest run ever today! (As an aside, I will have two more weekends of longest runs ever before I actually complete my marathon on May 4.) Today’s plan called for 18 miles. The group I run with had an 11 mile run scheduled, so my plan was to get up early and get 6 miles in before I met up with the group at 8:00. That was the plan… the reality didn’t quite match up to that as I couldn’t drag myself out of bed, even though I got to bed earlier than normal. So, instead of getting out the door at 6:15, I was about 15 minutes behind, leaving me only about an hour to run before I had to meet up with my group. Since I ended up having to meet my running group on the run last time, I wanted to make sure to get back in time to actually meet up with them before they started the run. As a result, I did about 3.5 miles on my own before meeting up with the group and then about another 3 miles after the group stopped. I did much better at pacing myself on the first couple of miles by myself than I ever have in the past, even starting a little slower than normal pace – the last 3 miles I really just ran on feel since I was on my own and I just wanted to get through it!
Mile 1 – 12:28
Mile 2 – 12:38
Mile 3 – 11:56
Mile 4 – 12:04
Mile 5 – 13:00 <– waiting on a stoplight
Mile 6 – 13:01
Mile 7 – 13:38 <– water stop
Mile 8 – 12:19
Mile 9 – 16:36 <– water stop
Mile 10 – 12:32
Mile 11 – 11:49
Mile 12 – 12:38
Mile 13 – 15:07 <– water stop
Mile 14 – 12:24
Mile 15 – 12:11
Mile 16 – 11:54
Mile 17 – 13:17 <– waiting on a stoplight
Mile 18 – 11:19
My average pace through the 18 miles was 12:49. I think this pace would be a little faster per mile if I take out the waiting for stoplights and the extended water stops. When we stop for water on the group runs, we usually end up taking more time than I expect to do during my actual race. When I take my fuel during the run, I usually end up taking a longer walk break (closer to 1:30 if I’m eating an entire GU or a cracker), but the group breaks end up as a touch base with our leader, figuring out who is running which distance and various other tasks which I won’t be doing during my marathon. This was my last training run that won’t include a half marathon race in the middle of it, so I will get to test our my theory on my 20 and 23 mile training runs in the next month.
How was your Saturday?