8/26/11
22 miles / 3:07 / 8:30 avg pace
*Since I like to be exact and precise, I need to point out that my average pace is 4 seconds below goal marathon pace! 4 seconds isn’t much but I’ll take it!
And with that I’m DONE! It’s taper time!
Since I’m on an endorphin-high and thoughts are still going through my head a mile a minute, let’s stick with bullet points for today.
- My goal was to keep my splits even from the get-go. Instead of taking a few miles to warm-up and then picking it up during the middle of the run to make up time, I aimed for 8:30 splits. This helped tremendously. My energy level was consistent throughout the entire run. In fact, from mile 15 on all my splits were 8:30 or under, with the exception of my last mile (8:45 – huge hill).
- It was humid. Not crazy humid but 93% at the start.
- I ignored my (negative) thoughts during this run. Let me explain. I know at a certain point my brain is going to say “you cannot maintain this pace, you are nuts, you need to slow down, you are tired”. And most of the time I listen and obey when I still have gas in the tank. Today I only listened to my body and my Garmin and I was fine. I didn’t slow down and I wasn’t tired. I definitely had gas left for 4 more miles. Don’t get me wrong, BQing is going to be hard but I think I can do it.
- I passed a guy wearing a CamelBak on a hill. Even though it was a guy and I passed him on a hill, I didn’t feel very bad ass AT ALL. To me, the CamelBak wearers are ultramarathoners and he probably thinks my 22 miler is a walk in the park. Us marathoners only carry handheld water bottles 😉
- A guy on a bike asked me what time it was. I’m sure he saw the Garmin on my wrist a mile away and he stupidly thought that the watch could tell time. It displays 4 things at a time but time isn’t one of them. I told him my watch “doesn’t do time” and he probably thought I was nuts…or extremely lazy (sidenote: I do know where the time is on my Garmin but that would involve slowing down and switching screens which I didn’t have time for today).
Almost forgot…here are some post-LR pics!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Question: Is Hurricane Irene ruining your long run or race plans this weekend? I was supposed to do a tempo run on Sunday but may have to switch it to Saturday or brave the TM on Sunday (oh the horror)!
Please keep voting throughout the weekend for RTLR for CBS Philly’s Most Valuable Blogger(click here to vote)!
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! way to go friend!!!! you have totally rocked your training for this marathon and I have seriously LOVED following your training this summer. i can barely wait for race day for you and am just so excited for you!!!! congrats on an amazing awesome fantastic run!!! TAPER TIME. what what!!!!!
thanks julia – loved your comment!!!
I am SO excited for you!!
Irene has ruined my race this weekend (cancelled) and made me shuffle around my running. Booo hurricane!
Yay! That’s so great! I can’t wait to hear about your BQ!!!
awesome kristy!! so impressive. and i totally think of mc hammer too 🙂 enjoy your taper!!
Wow that is fabulous! 4 miles is nothing and you’ll have adrenaline to boot! I bet you’ll you PR and BQ no problem!
It takes my body so long to warm up that I don’t think I can start out at marathon pace — maybe not even for the marathon – yikes! Any tips?
Hi Meggie, this was the first time I ever started out at MP (I generally like a warm-up miles too). I did do WU miles for NJM and all my other marathons and was OK. But for this marathon it’s different. I have* very little* wiggle room with pace and I don’t want to have to really speed up during the middle miles and then crash and burn at the end. I was very surprised today that I was able to begin at 8:30 pace and stay there (although my body didn’t exactly love me during the first initial miles).
My advice would be to try it both ways during your LRs — starting out a little faster and see if you can maintain it AND doing WU miles and then picking up the pace in the middle. You might surprise yourself!
you are a rock star! awesome, awesome! enjoy your taper and you are going to be amazing on race day. i just know it. you have prepared so well for this one!
now…go have a beer!
shockingly, i am doing just that tonight!
Oh my gosh you are so hard core. You are so ready for the marathon! It was humid today and I’m sure it will cool down by your race date so you will be even faster! I’m running 8 miles with a friend on a flat rail trail early tomorrow morning trying to beat the rain!
Dang girl! That is a great run! You just did a 22 mile MP run! You are clearly in better shape than a 3:45 marathon. I think you should seriously consider going for a 3:40 so that you actually have a chance of GOING to Boston, not just qualifying. It would be an 8:20ish pace (taking into account that the course will measure more than 26.2) You could TOTALLY do that pace!
Recover well!
oh no, i’m sticking with my 3:45 goal!!! that run was doable but by no means easy. i don’t want to do what i did in may – train for a specific time and then try and go for another (faster) time. a 3:40 would be really hard.
i hope your 22-miler is going well! at least you don’t have to worry about the hurricane!
You could totally do it. I just don’t want you to be in the position I am, with a BQ that doesn’t mean much cause it won’t get you there. I think you should go for the 3:40! 🙂
22 was a 21 and a mixed bag. I’ll blog about it later.
You are AWESOME! You will BQ like crazy! Doesn’t it feel good to be in the taper? It sounds like you had a great run, and four seconds is a LOT in a marathon for average pace, in my inexpert opinion. I had a camelbak training for a half – I feel like a dork now! Passing a guy on a hill is totally badass. Go celebrate!
Don’t feel like a dork! Its actually a smart idea. I refill my handheld 3 times during my run!
Nice running lady!! I would love to get something similar under my belt before taper time for some BQ confidence. You can/will totally do it!
Irene has kind of screwed up my plans – a half marathon I was going to run on Sunday was canceled, so I did my long run this morning and it was CRAZY humid. Yuck. Hope you are staying safe!
Nice job on the 22-miles! Holy shit, 8:30 pace is awesome!
I was supposed to race a 5k today, but it was cancelled due to Irene. Honestly, I was actually kind of happy about that. My legs were NOT feelin’ speedy. Instead I ran an easy long run with friends and am now drinking beer to re-hydrate. I like this plan better 🙂
Can’t wait to see how your marathon goes, wheeee!
dude, 22 flippin miles! you amaze me.
Great run and amazing pace!! You will be awesome. Love the Stop sign picture. Voted for your blog again! Just realized one of the other nominees is a parent in my district, you get all my votes though 🙂
thank you…i’m honored!