18 miles and 2:32:00 (8:27 m/m pace)

Friday night it snowed in Atlanta and we had about three inches of snow on the ground. The plan was to run at 8am Saturday morning but due to the weather I had to run mid day at noon. I met up with the Tri team at Silver Comet Trail which is a running/biking trail that starts 13 miles northwest of Atlanta goes about 61 miles to the Georgia/Alabama line. It is great to run on b/c you don't have to worry about cars and you can kind of zone out and get long runs or rides in. The plan from EK was to run for 2 hours and keep it around to a bit faster than race pace (9:00 m/m) for the duration of the run.

Getting to 0.0 mile marker I GU'ed up and did some stretching getting ready for the long haul. The plan was to run 2 hours and hopefully cover as close to 16 miles as possible without bonking (Bonking = hitting the wall; a condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by precipitous fatigue and loss of energy).

I started running with a few of the people on the tri team for about the first 7 miles off and on. I tried eating some energy jelly beans a half hour into the run at about the 3.5 mile mark and struggled to keep steady breathing. They tasted great but running while chewing for me equals not breathing which is an issue. So lesson learned, if I am going to eat the beans then I will have to take a short stop to eat them and then move on. Just a note, I take some nutrition every half hour for workouts lasting longer than an hour. So once I caught my breath back I was running with a few others again. Sometimes people who run short distances run faster than I want to run and others run slower. After the 7 mile marker a few of the coaches and myself stopped for a brief GU & Gatorade (I carry these items on me) and then we ran for another mile before they all turned around and I kept going for another mile. I felt good for the most part although at times the running was tough b/c there was snow/ice spots that you had to run over so the terrain was changing making running a little more difficult. It was kind of nice b/c I felt like I was back home in CT running. At the 9 mile marker I felt good and turned around. I knew there were a few people ahead of me once I headed back that were doing shorter runs so I kept a steady pace to see if I could at least get them in my sight if not catch them at some point. At the six mile marker I saw a few people but didn't know if they were part of the team or not. This helped me mentally to see people b/c when you run all alone you tend to think to much and so I could focus on the music in the background on my headphones and seeing the people in front of me. I made sure I didn't pick up my pace to catch them though b/c I didn't want to get into the rabbit chasing the carrot syndrome and run out of energy before I got back to the 0.0 marker. As the distance past I was catching the people without changing a thing which was nice. At the 5 miles left marker I caught one of the runners and saw it was one of the tri members who is usually a good runner but was struggling this day due to just getting over a cold. She was pressing on like a champ though and we ran together for a little while. At the 4 miles left marker there is a bike shop with public restrooms. I decided I would take a short break and use the restroom and heat up my hands. I had gloves on but I was noticing my left hand was colder than normal. The stop took about two minutes and then I was back on the trail. Right before the bike shop I had gained some distance on a few of the runners on the path so when I came out of the restroom they were at the crosswalk on the trail. I started back running with them but then was back in my pace for the day and pretty quickly pulled away from them again. Finding myself all alone again I had about 3.5 miles to go and was at a pace to run 18 miles faster than two weeks earlier when I ran 16 miles. Knowing 3.5 miles isn't that long compared to what I have been running for training I felt pretty good mentally about my run. Physically I was starting to pay for the pace. At the 3 mile left marker I felt a knot in my right hamstring that had been there for most of the day and I had stretched it out a few times. It wasn't a full crap but just enough that I was anticipating trouble at any point. The next two and a half miles were really tough on me and seemed to take FOREVER! My legs were getting a bit tired of the pace and my breathing was increasing which from my past runs means my heart rate was increasing. I tried to keep pushing on and staying on the pace. This was one of the times that your body is telling you to walk b/c it will feel good but your mind is saying keep running and keep running the pace you have been running for most of the day. Then I came around a small bend and thought I was near the end but didn't see the cars. This was tough but I knew I was within a mile of the finish so pressed on and within a few moments saw the cars up ahead. I put my head down and listened for my watch to beep. I have my watch set up to beep every mile so I know what pace I am running. Once it beeped I stopped my watch and started walking. Overall I felt really crappy and my right hamstring although never crapped still felt like it was going to. Final numbers 18 miles in 2:32:00. A pace of 8:27 for 18 miles which was faster than a few weeks earlier when I ran 16 miles in 2:36:00 at 9:48 pace.

From this run I learned a few lessons which I think are really good experience for me for the marathon and the tri's that I will be doing later in the year.
1) The mental game is harder than the physical challenge if you train right. Your mind tries to get you to fight on when your body doesn't feel like it, your mind tells you, you are going slow when you are on pace or faster, and the best feeling is when your mind and body are together b/c then the experience seems almost effortless. Obviously these times are few and far between but they are nice.
2) Doing anything for a long period of time needs mental conditioning. My goal was to eventually run 18 mile under 3 hours. Now I know I can do that and do that with relative ease. So for the 26.2 mile marathon I just have to break it down into a few pieces that makes me not get overwhelmed with the entire length. My suggestion is do this in anything you do. Break it up into pieces and attack each piece not allowing yourself to get overwhelmed with the entire goal. For example: if you have an hour spinning break it up into 4 x15" pieces and work on different things during each piece.
3) Listen to your body if it tells you something is wrong but learn what being injured is from a weakness. I haven't experienced running through a cramp like that as usually I would have stopped and completely stretched it out before going on. To run through it I learned a little more about myself and my body. Note: it was about three hours after the run after stretching, laying down for about 45 min, and a warm shower before the feeling completely went away.
4) Exercise especially endurance times/distances with people are far better and easier than by yourself so pair up and have FUN! Well as much fun as you can while going through pain :)


Overall this run was a HUGE success for me. My first goal of finishing the marathon isn't in question for me any longer. I know I will do it. The second goal is to run the marathon under 4 hrs and after this effort I feel that is something that I can accomplish as well. I understand that 16 - 26.2 are going to hurt and be very hard but I got a small taste of that pain on this run and I also know that I can back the pace down almost 30" a mile and still be under 4:00:00.

I ran faster than EK had planned for me but this was an accomplishment for myself that I didn't take on until I knew I could do it at about the 8 mile mark. I listen to EK almost to a "T" during the weeks b/c his coaching is awesome but this run I had to do for myself!