A solid day yesterday got my week back on track. I needed 19 miles in the last 2 days to get to my goal of 55 miles for the week. It's a taper week now.
I'm not the only one struggling with the heat. Earlier in the week, my friend Melissa commented about the same. Since I could use some company, I recommended running together. Initially, I thought it would be an afternoon run. Instead, she was doing her 16 mile long run this morning. I met her near her house, at Sand Island, after 7 AM.
She has already run the first 6 miles. I brought some water along for her. The plan was to go out about 2.5 miles in each direction and then we could stop so she could get water. I had my handheld. The weather was actually great at the start. Still, I ran shirtless, and was glad that I did.
We began by heading toward Allentown. This section is a little bit on the rough side. Melissa didn't care for it much. I wore old shoes, because it rained last night. The shoes didn't work that well and I developed some minor soreness.
We chatted a bit early on about running and other stuff. The company was good and so was the weather. It helped me relax a lot. We were clicking off miles at about a 9 minute pace. That's slower than usual for me, but I was fine with it. I think it did bother my legs, but that was worth trading off for some company.
It wasn't long until we got to point where Melissa wanted to turn around. That was actually 2.35 miles out. That was fine by me. It was close enough.
I didn't get much sleep the night before, but I wasn't doing too bad. The run was easy enough. Heading back kind of sucked, in that we were running into the rising sun. We came to a few people out running or biking in this section.
Melissa started to tire as we neared Sand Island. The pace slowed a little. It wasn't bad though. We were back at the car and stopped for a drink. I toweled off too. I stopped a little early because I got a phone call from work. I was at 4.65 miles.
We then headed out toward Freemansburg. The sun was still in our face. At least coming back, it would be behind us. Since Melissa had been slowing and getting near her limit, I tried to make sure to let her lead. I followed behind. Since she was working hard, we talked much less.
I knew getting to the turnaround would help. We didn't quite make it to Freemansburg before we hit that point. That was at mile 7 for me. The pace had slowed some more.
We cruised on back. I figured we'd get back to Sand Island around 9.2 miles. Melissa was struggling, but I thought she'd get through it. She said she was going to run/walk the last mile. I offered to try to pull her in. I was disappointed that I couldn't convince her to do that. I hated to see her walk when she was so close to the finish of the run.
Once she started walking, I kept running. I picked up the pace. Overall, it was around a 9:17. Now, I was running an 8:19 mile 9. I went toward Sand Island for a bit, but then a guy ran by in the other direction. I didn't want to leave Melissa alone, so I ran back toward her.
I ended up doing another little bit of an out and back to add about half a mile. I ran by someone with a dog. I never did catch Melissa. Right after I was done though, I saw her walking from the water fountain. I made it to 10 miles. My last mile was an 8:03 and my overall pace dropped to a 9:04.
It was great to be done with a run and have company and enjoy it for a change. It was also good to knock out a run in the morning and have the whole rest of the day free. I wish I could do that more often. As Melissa had some issues with the distance, it made me appreciate how strong my endurance is and where I'd come from. I was in her same shoes 2 years ago. I just kept working and working and working at it though.
I'm hoping I can get up again tomorrow morning. I want to run the Steps 4 Stellar 5K at Cedar Beach. It looks like it is very competitive every year. I think the Lehigh XC Team usually runs it. No matter what I do, I want to run 9 miles total. I am working the registration at Quadzilla in the afternoon. That will be good to see some friends.
10 miles - 1:30:34 (9:04 pace)
No comments:
Post a Comment