20 miles

[marathoner452]

20 miles this morning starting at 8:30 at mile 0 on the NCR Trail.

Gels at miles 4, 8, 12, 16. Gel at 16 was caffeinated, hence I ran 9:16, 9:18, 9:06 for the last 3 miles for a final run time of 3:19:41/9:59 pace. I have never, so far as I can remember, run that far that fast without being in a race. I never felt tired, and I actually could have run farther. Definitely bodes well for race day.

Celebrated afterwards with blueberry pancakes and orange juice at Bagel Works and coconut custard from Snickerdoodles where my sister works.

Marathon is 11/25. Goal is under 4 hours/9:09 pace. 5k next weekend, 21 miles the weekend after that, then taper…just 5 weeks to go!

See more progress on: run another marathon

Comments

[marathoner452.livejournal.com]

My mom will be there volunteering/cheering me on, at least early on in the race-she's volunteering at the finish line. So you could ride along with her for the early miles then nagivate the rest on your own. It's really pretty easy. Pretty much the only places to watch the race are the places where the road crosses the trail. Most of these places have parking lots, and most of the roads that cross the trail are easily accessible from York Road/83: http://www.pmw.com/running/runs/NCRTrail/. (I think Phoenix is the only one that's a little more tricky, and that one isn't even on the race course.)

The race starts at Sparks Elementary and takes about 2 miles to get down to the trail at Sparks Road (mile 3.8), then it runs north on the trail for about 11 miles. Then we turn around and come back down the trail for 11 miles and leave the trail at Glencoe (mile 4.6) to return to the school. That last part is a little bit of a pain because you're going uphill at the very end of the race, but that means you can hang out in the nice warm school with REAL bathrooms at the finish. That's awesome for both runners and spectators.

The best place to catch me would be at Monkton, mile 7.2 on the trail-mile 5 1/2 on the way out and 21 on the way back. There's a nice big parking lot there. North of that, I don't know the trail all that well.

The race doesn't start until 9:30 on 11/25, and I should be finished around 1:30. I'll email you a list of approximate times I'll reach Monkton and the other checkpoints.

I'm subbing in the high school on Thursday-I think I'd rather run 20 miles.

~Bethany