Friday evening I followed the same exact route I had done with Lee on Thursday morning only this time I was running with Heather. An easy 5 miles in 42 minutes.

Saturday morning I met the group for a trip around the drives. We had a group of about 6 people cruising at 7:30 pace. I could tell from the start that it wasn't going to be the best run and it wasn't. After two easy days I expected a good run but I was dragging on the way down Kelly Drive. I felt tight and out of sync, making the 7:30 pace uncomfortable. 8.5 miles in 64 minutes.

Afterwards I stretched and couldn't even reach my toes. That is never a good thing and somewhat explains the bad run.


Sunday morning I had a long run planned with Ian and Devon. On this run I felt good from the start it carried all the way through the run. Ian planned a route that would take us over Girard Avenue and to Belmont Ave. We followed Belomont all the way across City Ave and took the Belmont Hills in reverse. They are much easier in this direction, almost to much downhill. We followed Belmont to I-76 and made a left up a steep 1/2 mile hill that had me panting at the top despite the slow pace.

We followed a couple roads and eventually ended up back at the bottom of the Belmont Hills in the hard direction. Ian and I didn't pay to much attention to the hills as we chatted and before I knew we were over all three. We crossed City ave again and the pace picked up a little as we made a left on Ford Road destined for the Strawberry Mansion Bridge and East Fairmount Park.

A few loops in the park, Lemon Hill, and back to LLoyd Hall were I tacked on extra 10 minutes to reach 2 hours. I was tired by the end but not exhausted. Overall I felt good and was very happy with the first official long run of marathon training. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the distance after mapping it out. 16.6 miles in 2 hours. 7:14 pace on a fairly tough run.

This gives me 48 miles for the week plus 1000M in the pool.