Notes
Wow. Reality. On kind of a whim...I decided to sign up for the DSM Marathon on Oct. 21st.
Knowing I hadn't done anything past 14-15 miles, I knew I needed to try a 20 miler and this was probably the last week to try it. Since 8:30 had been my easy pace, I figured that was the focus. Instead of actually hitting 20 on the dot, I decided to go with 1.5 hours x 2 with a short break between.
1st 10.57 were fine, but it was tough trying to keep it at 8:30 for some reason. I had water with me (camelback). I liked the idea of the 1:30 time for many reasons, but on Harper Rd I knew it would give me some good hills. I scored a quarter 25 cents. So for my first 10.57:
8:35/8:27/8:30/8:30/8:30/8:34/8:33/8:25/8:30/8:31 and .57 at 4:47 (8:27)
Am I crazy? No, I just want to do this. I want to do a marathon under 4 hours and to beat my PR by an hour would be sweet (8:30 pace).
Before hitting the KeWash, I ditched the Camelback and grabbed a G2. Also, decided I might need some fuel so I put some honey on some bread (ahead of time)and wrapped it up in press/seal paper...mistake...the paper stuck to itself so bad I couldn't get it open very easily at all. The Honey popped out just fine. In anycase, I took off at a solid 8:30 pace and at mile 3 I put down the G2 to pick up on the final 3 miles. There was definitely some pain involved in a run like this, but not too bad until that final .57 where I actually got a side ache (first time in 35 years). I'm thinking it might have been the bread/honey and the G2 mixture or maybe my body was telling me to quit. I listened and stopped, but then took off again and managed to sustain the 8:30 pace at the end.
8:33/8:30/8:27/8:31/8:29/8:29/8:28/8:29/8:28/8:28/ final .57 (8:30).
Man, am I tired. Can I do 5.2 more miles at the 8:30 pace? I am pretty sure I can, especially if I'm tapering off the final week and don't run the day before.