I wanted to start out at 5:30 AM and run before the main group started. I was hoping to go to a high school cross country meet at Kutztown at 9 AM. Usually I have trouble getting up. Last night, I had trouble going to bed. I knew that I'd have trouble falling asleep early, so I waited until midnight to sleep. It was around 2 AM before I finally fell asleep. A little earlier, I just reset my alarm to get up and run with Kelley at 6:30 AM.
Flo and a few others were there when I arrived, but I needed to use the bathroom and then I just waited around for Kelley. When she showed up, we took off. We were cruising along at a nice and comfortable pace in the first mile. Shortly before we hit the end of the mile, a woman came speeding up behind us to run with us.At first I thought it was Linda and I was confused because she claimed she couldn't make it. I was sort of right. It was Linda, but a different Linda that I had never met before. The three of us ran along together for a few more miles.
Because Linda was behind me, it forced me to push the pace. That was fine because my legs were feeling good and I want to have some tougher segments within these long runs anyway. Kelley commented that we were going awfully fast and I didn't say anything.
I didn't say much throughout the run, even when with Kelley. I was running pissed off because I wasn't able to run when I wanted to. I wasn't in a good mood. As I always like to do, I hoped over the closed gate at the road crossings. It is a nice, short hurdle.
I could hear Kelley breathing and tell she was struggling some. She's running a leg of the marathon relay tomorrow, so the pace was a little quicker than she wanted. Before the 3 mile point, she dropped back from Linda and I and said she was turning around soon. I'm actually so proud of her. She is learning to back off more. I've been trying to teach her that you can't always go all out all the time. She has learned that.
Linda and I continued on for another half mile before turning around. I continued to be surprised that she was hanging on at this fairly brisk pace. I was struggling with it. I thought I knew all the faster girls in the group and figured a lot of them might struggle with this pace for a long run. We were consistently putting in miles under an 8 minute pace.
Not only was Linda hanging on, she looked good and seemed stronger than me. I was very impressed. I had no choice but to slow a little or I'd die in the final 7 miles. That decrease in pace wasn't much and Linda pulled me along. I actually even started to get a bit lightheaded. I thought to myself that I can't keep this pace up for 14 miles and I was thinking she couldn't either. I kept thinking that she was going to do less miles or go slower.
Suddenly as we hit mile 6, she stopped and started walking. I had to keep going. I didn't say much to her all run. She did comment at one point that I was no longer hurdling the gates. I don't want to get injured, so I stop doing that after the first few. Who knows what fatigue will do to me. I might twist an ankle.
I decided that I would try to sneak in an extra mile before the group started. Flo went by in the other direction and I was tempted to turn around and go with her. She was probably moving too fast though and would've really killed me. Instead, I turned around at the end of the trail and started a short out and back.
I knew I was cutting it close because my overall time was right around an hour. I just hoped I could get back before the main group started. I wanted to get some brief rest and a drink. As I was about a third of a mile from turning back around, the group came by in the other direction. This would've been a great time to have a GoPro camera to get a picture of all of them.
I let them go a little and thought it would help me to chase them down when I turned around. I was afraid to let them go too far, so I looped back around about a quarter of a mile from where I wanted. I figured that I would catch some of the slower runners in the group, but wasn't sure about the front of the group. Mertz and Flo weren't with that pack, so I figured that I might have a shot. There were still some speedy people mixed in there like Kelley, Tom and Christina.
It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to catch back up. I soon started passing some of them and exchanged greetings. The last two small groups were tough to reel in. They might not have been moving as fast as they could've either. A lot of them are running part of the race tomorrow.
When I caught up to the fast pack, I sat in behind Kelley and her friend and just relaxed for awhile. I was in a good rhythm though and didn't want to break that up, so I passed them too. In hindsight, I probably would've been better off resting behind them for a mile or two and then taking off. I had no time to recover.
I was back out on my own and cruising along again. I just focused on getting to the 11 mile point and turning around. Somehow I would will my way through the last 3 miles. I was exhausted, but still going strong. It seemed like almost right when I hit mile 10, I started to slide. I felt slower and start getting a side sticker. That went away shortly though.
Turning around was a great relief, but the final 5k or so was brutal. I guess the main group turned around earlier. The only person I saw coming the other direction was Mel (and of course Flo was running everywhere). I hoped to catch the rest of the group, but figured that wouldn't happen. If only I would've stayed with them, I might not have crashed so bad.
I passed April and Melissa at one point and they said they couldn't even hear me coming. That is a good thing. It means I'm running pretty efficiently. I was still crashing bad when I got to them. I just tried to stay focused within the next mile. It would've been cool to try to stay under an 8 mile pace for the whole run, but that would've required me to kill myself in the last 5k. Instead, I used it almost like a cooldown.
That didn't make it any easier though. One thing that did help was catching up to a few more of the guys. Some were walking and others were going slowly. I told Gary that we were almost done. At this point, the humidity was destroying me. My shorts were so soaked and sticking to me. I put some BodyGlide on beforehand, but still chafed my thighs thanks to the weather.
I came through the half marathon distance at right around a 1:45:30. Not bad for a regular training run. I pushed some more in the last half mile, but it was so hard. I just kept focused on small increments. I was finally finished right at the end of the trail. I went back to meet the group and was so tired that I kept walking around.
My legs were screaming after the run. It was definitely a good workout. There was no way I could go to breakfast in this condition. My calves are sore, but surprisingly so are my quads. That soreness has come out of nowhere the last few days. I might need to work on them.
This was such an awesome run. Group runs just challenge me so much, especially when I go as hard as I did today. I want to PR in 2 months and there is no way that that would be possible without all these great people pushing me toward my limit. It still may be tough, but I feel like it is attainable. I think these overdistance long runs between now and then will be a huge help.
I've put in a long 45 miles this week and over 6 hours of total running. My body will be thanking me for the rest day tomorrow. I will walk a little to photograph the race. I think I might try mile repeats on Monday. Hopefully, I can do 4 this time. My mom was telling me that next week will be less humid. We shall see. I think I'm going to run the free LVRR 5k on Wednesday. I'm hoping that can give me a bigger confidence boost.
14 miles - 1:52:54 (8:04 pace)
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