I wanted to run on Wednesday evening after I was done watching IndyCar testing at Pocono. However, as I was leaving the track, thunderstorms were approaching. That was disappointing because I missed a chance to work on speed. I'll do that tomorrow instead.
Tonight was my 2nd run of 3 runs of the St. Luke's Half Marathon course. It was the regular LVRR Group Run night. We started this time in the parking lot across from the Parkette's. This wasn't the best place to run since it was mostly along busy MLK Blvd. It had to be done though to complete the course.
Allen, who had been out the last two weeks, showed up again. He was the only one from last week to return. That means we'll have no one run the full series that is actually running the race. The weather was cool and it looked like it might storm, so that probably kept some people away.
We did have one other runner. A young lady named Ashley. She had asked on facebook if the runs were still going on. I was glad to see her come out. I had to laugh when she said she runs an 8 minute pace for shorter runs and didn't want to hold anyone back with how slow she is. If anything, it would be the opposite. People just don't understand the pace of group runs I guess.
We decided not to head east to the turnaround point. We weren't that far away from it. We ran west on the paved path that goes to the pool. After that, we were on busy MLK Blvd. The first mile had me breathing a bit heavy as we pushed quite hard. It was an 8:02.
At one point, there wasn't really any good place to run along the road, so we crossed the street. That was a little challenging. The second mile was even faster at 7:53. After those two, I could tell Ashley was struggling some, so we slowed it down a bit. I try to just run as fast as the fastest people can handle. It was just a normal run day pace for me.
We got to the road into the parkway and kept going. Even though we ran this section last week, I decided to let Ashley dictate how much of the course she wanted to see. On St. Elmo Street, she wanted to keep going. I figured we would run to Yocco's and turn around.
I could tell some of the hills were tough. We all chatted a bit, but it wasn't easy to do with all the traffic and the brisk pace. Most of the time, the two of them ran behind me. The temperature actually turned out to be perfect for running.
This is going to be Ashley's first half marathon, so I was surprised that we kept going and going. We crossed the road in front of Yocco's and ran all the way to the finish. Running through Cedar Beach was nice and pleasant. We ran into a couple people that Allen knew there.
As we turned onto Linden Street, we hit a headwind. That wasn't much fun. Since I was leading the way, I blocked the wind. Allen and Emmaus were having a track meet, so we were able to run up the short hill into the stadium. We couldn't run on the track of course, unless we wanted to run in the 800 meter race. Although if we did that, we probably could've beaten the Allen runners.
Rather than going all the way back through Cedar Beach via the course route, we took a shortcut through the park. We didn't have too much trouble crossing back in front of Yocco's. The hills weren't a lot of fun and I could tell that they were taking their toll on my group.
We then made it back onto MLK Blvd. This time, we were running into a headwind the rest of the way back. Again, I was blocking the wind. I was impressed that Ashley kept wanting to go on. She was determined to see a lot of course. She seemed like a tough gal.
This time, we crossed over onto the other side of the road much sooner. It was a lot safer. This area sure isn't the best place to run. It was good to be back onto the path. We finished up a little faster than we had been with an 8:23 mile and an 8:21 partial mile. The run was just under 7 miles.
I actually thought this was going to be a very easy and slow run. It wasn't hard by my standards, but definitely a little challenging. I had considered trying to squeeze my fast run in this afternoon, but I just didn't have time. After seeing how far and fast this run was, I'm glad I didn't.
I'd love to get up tomorrow morning and bike. I really need to start riding more often and I think that could be a good recovery. I am working tomorrow and will definitely be running 800 repeats in the afternoon. I hope to get 7 of them done.
With this run being longer than I expected, my mile will bump up quite a bit this week. I am starting to get sore and might consider getting a massage soon. My sister got me a gift card for one for Christmas and I haven't used it yet. I've been waiting until my body really needed it and it seems like now is close to that time.
6.80 miles - 58:10 (8:33 pace)
Awesome run! Glad they both came out to meet you!
ReplyDelete