For the 2nd day in a row, the weather was beautiful. It is amazing what that does when we get the first warm weekend in months. The Cementon trailhead was packed like I've never seen before and Cove Road was crowded too. When I left, cars had to park in the grass there. Everyone came out of the woodwork for this warm weather. Most of them were walkers, bikers and dog walkers. There weren't too many runners. I rarely see anyone on this trail, so I welcomed the crowd. The temperature was in the low 50s. Of course I wore short sleeves and shorts.
I started off heading north. Even though that is an uphill start, I prefer that direction. It isn't a killer hill. It is just a long and gradual one. There was a woman that ran by me as I was at my car about to leave for the run. That was both good and bad. It was good because it gave me someone to chase down. It was bad because it was so early in the run. When I lived in Philly, I used to have people to catch all of the time. Here, that rarely happens.
I wasn't trying hard to catch the woman, but it is only natural to run a little faster when there is another runner up ahead of you and you are faster than they are. I slowly reeled her in. I felt pretty good early on. I caught and passed her right around the 1 mile mark. That first mile was an 8:05.
Right around where I passed her were some tough trail conditions. I guess it is an area that doesn't get a lot of sun. The trail was soggy and wet and made running kind of difficult. I got through it though.
These first few miles on the run were so tough. I ran maybe a little faster than I should have. I certainly wasn't pushing it though. It was probably between an easy pace and a moderate pace. With some sun, good temperatures, nice scenery around the river, and all the people, this was a fun run. Much, much better than the harsh winter runs of recent weeks.
I just tried to stay focused on each upcoming mile. My legs felt okay. They weren't terrible or great. I had some soreness in the inside of both calves. It wasn't enough to bother me too much, so I kept plugging along.
I wanted to get to the 4 mile point before turning around. That was the minimum. If I did that, then I would only have 4 miles left to run in the other direction. I focused on getting to 4 miles, but it wasn't easy. There was a little breeze, which at times felt good and other times it was annoying.
I passed so many families out either walking or biking. It was so energizing. I wish they would come out all year long. Somewhere around 3.5 miles, I got a glimpse of the mountains and the Lehigh Gap. That was cool and I knew I was closing in on Slatington. I wasn't going to run all the way to the gap, but thought maybe I would continue on to Slatington. Miles 2 and 3 were a fast 7:38 and 7:42. There must have been some downhill there. Mile 4 was much slower at 8:39. That was by far my slowest mile. My pace was generally pretty consistent.
When I got to mile 4, I was hurting some, but I knew I could make it to mile 5. If I did that, at least I'd have to run or walk 10 total miles to get back to my car. That usually forces me to keep running. I was going to turn around at mile 5, but right as I got there there was a lady walking a baby. It would've been weird to turn around right at that spot, so I kept going.
At this point, I was close to the Slatington Trailhead. I decided to just run there until I got to the road crossing. Then I could turn around. I looped through the parking area and headed back down south. Heading that way wasn't a lot of fun. It took some getting used to the wind. It was stronger in this direction and blowing in my face. I wish it blew in this direction during my fall half marathon. After running just over 5 miles, I was pretty beat up. I wondered how I could last and make it through 7 more miles, or at a minimum 5 more miles.
The key as always was just to focus on the next mile or two. I got to mile 7 and that was a big mental hurdle. I now knew that it would only be less than a 5K until I hit double digits. I thought about getting to mile 8 and then mile 9 (3/4 of the way through the run).
I found another fun thing to do to keep me focused. I saw my watch at 5.55 miles, I missed it at 6.66 miles, but I saw it again at 7.77 miles. From then on, I focused on getting 1.11 miles farther. Hitting mile 9.99 was a goal. The time for mile 8 was back to an 8:01. I thought maybe I was slipping. I was happy to get that far at under an 8 minute overall pace.
There is a stable with a couple horses right next to the trail at one point. As I came to that area, I saw 2 people were actually riding the horses in front of me at the road crossing. That was cool and I had no trouble getting around them.
I was thrilled when I got to mile 9. The only issue was that this area was sloppy again. I could feel the tire tracks from the bikes that had gone through before me. The softness of the trail as well as the downhill of this section, made it kind of easy. It was definitely better than I was feeling earlier. I knew at this point, I would get to 10 miles. Could I run another 2?My lungs were a problem yesterday, but at this pace today, there was no issue. The issue was my sore legs. I felt like I was slowing down and falling apart, but my times showed otherwise. I was still going strong.
I got to mile 10 and ran that one in 7:54. I wasn't quite back to the Cove Road Trailhead, but I was close. I continued on past the parking area. A woman was running from the parking lot. Even though my legs were struggling, that gave me another thing to focus on. I wanted to catch her before turning around a little after the 11 mile point.
It is amazing how legs can go just as far as they have in a recent long run. Then, when you go past that point, they get very sore. That was the case when I passed the 10 mile mark. My lower back started to get sore as well, but I had to keep going.
I ran hard when I got to the woman. I wanted to make the pass happen quickly, so that I could slow myself down a little after it. I almost sprinted by here. A little while later, a guy was walking his small dog in the other direction. It looked like it wanted run with me.
The plan was to get to get to somewhere between 11.25 miles to 11.5 miles and then turn around. There is a house about a mile south from the Cove Road Trailhead. Their dogs are always out and they always run over to the fence and start barking. They did that again today, so I turned right around at 11.26 miles. They have yet to chase me, but I'm not taking a chance.
Coming back for the final 3/4 of a mile was hard. It was back uphill and I was physically destroyed. I went by the guy with the small dog and the dog ran with me briefly. That was kind of cute. It then went back to its owner.
I struggled through the finish. I kept looking down at my watch and counted off every .05 miles or every .1 miles. Eventually I was done with a strong final mile. It was run at 7:45. Only 3 of the 12 miles were over an 8 minute pace. Two of them were barely over 8 minutes. That was consistent.
It was a great run. My last mile of the 5K was a 7:57 and my pace for the entire run today was 7:55. That shows that I have some good endurance at a comfortable pace, but I need to be able to extend my faster pace. I learned a lot with both of these runs this weekend. I'm now ready and prepared to take what I've learned and improve my running throughout the spring.
When I was back at the parking lot, I saw the woman from the beginning of the run. She was walking now, but I was still impressed. She had started at some point before me and was still going over 1 hour and 30 minutes later. That is some good exercising.
I'm not sure what my plans for the week are yet. I'll probably rest tomorrow, but if I feel good, maybe I'll try running. Running on Tuesday is more likely. I'd like to do some speedwork as well as a Trexler run. Mix in the group run and I don't have many other options for the week. Wednesday I'm heading to the Lafayette basketball game at Bucknell. That doesn't give me much time to fit in a run, unless I do a dreaded AM run.
12 miles - 1:34:56 (7:55 pace)
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