Saturday, September 09, 2006

Start Slow - Finish Strong

I started this long run, like many this year, with no idea of what route I am going to run. I got to the front of the Art museum at 8:00 am hoping I might find a couple other people who just felt like running 16-20 miles for the day but none were to be found so I headed of on my own.

A couple miles up MLK and it felt humid, and warm, the sun was beating down on me and I had horrble images of me crashing at mile 15 of my long run due to dehydration. I debated on just running the loop and pushing my long run to Sunday but then decided I was just being a whiney bitch and kept going.

I turned up MLK and onto the trails. I passed a large group of middle-high school students who must have been getting ready for a cross-country meet. I was hoping I didn't get passed by 13 year olds on the trails. Once I got into the woods, things cooled down a bit and fell into a good groove that carried me through the rest of the run.

Lots of winding through the trails in West Fairmount a water fountain stop and before you know it I was an hour into the run, headed across strawberry mansion bridge and feeling great. Ran through East Fairmount to Girard and then Lansdowne hill, North Concourse, Belmont and back down Montgomery again. Turned up MLK and was floored by my first 1/4 mile split indicating a 6:45 mile. I really thought I must have timed it wrong but it was true. I hit a 6:45, 6:40, 6:35, 7:12, 7:03 for my last five miles. Fucking-A.

I was definitely dragging at the end but I was dragging with a big smile on my face after hitting those miles. A conservative 19 miles in 2 hr 25 minutes.

1 comment:

seebo said...

Nice workout, going sub MP like that on tired legs. Looks like your training's coming along well.