Playing Hooky

I skipped the group run today and slept in until 10 am. :-) Now that the heat/humidity have settled down, there really is no reason for me to start a 14 mile run at 7 am (which requires me getting up at 5:45 am so I can eat breakfast, stretch, etc.) So I didn’t. Also, the group was running from Crossroads in Oakley and the route was an out and back going through Norwood and Hyde Park. I hate out and backs and I am tired of running in Norwood/Hyde Park, so I decided to plan my own route. Guess where I ended up running? Ha.

Let me just say that planning a 14-15 mile run that doesn’t involve a million crosswalks or excursions through the ghetto isn’t a small feat. Even though I ended up running a similar route to the group’s, I was glad that I was able to plan a loop vs. an out and back. (My route also involved an extra 104 feet of hill climbing. I was very proud of this for some reason).

According to the coach’s email, we were supposed to run 3 miles easy, 9-10 at marathon pace, and the last two miles easy. For the first three miles I did a solid 9:57 average. My nine “marathon pace miles” were all over the board, ranging from a 10 to an 8:39 (mile 10! boom.). And the last 2.6 miles…let’s don’t even talk about the last 2.6 miles. My legs were dead through most of the run and both IT bands were a nuisance, so by mile 12 I just wanted to FINISH. Not good. If someone would have offered me a ride at that point I would have taken it (Kidding. Mostly.)

I should add that my splits were slightly less than exact because some of them occurred in between streets/landmarks and I wasn’t always hitting the button at the right time.

My average pace for the total 14.6 miles was about a 9:38, which is about 30 seconds off of my goal pace for a four hour marathon (9:09) and 20 seconds off of my McMillan predicted finish time (4:03/9:19 pace). The McMillan finish time is based off a calculator that has been deadly accurate for me in other races this summer. Sigh. Really, will those three minutes make or break me? Probably not but I’ve had the 4 hour goal stuck in my head since May and I’m unreasonably stubborn.

And let's face it - right now my biggest battle is not pace but attitude. I need to get better at fighting through the “I want to lay down in someone’s front yard” feeling that keeps coming up in the last few miles of every run lately, whether it’s a 20 miler or a 5 miler.