A strong urge to go somewhere I’ve never been before. Spent the day decorating my soon to be born son”s nursery. I’ve been thinking a lot about the country and where we might want to claim a plot of rural. What do we want?  These questions are both new and premature but lovely to contemplate nonetheless.

This picture is of a place I’ve passed many times before but never noticed.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/57735230?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4cec72a63ee93747,0

What a wonderful day running through the streets of Philadelphia. A cold morning start in the downtown street with a crowd of thousands. The goal was a 3:45 run which would mean a steady 8:30 pace throughout the mostly flat course. There were only a few truly challenging moments, mostly around 14 to 16 miles as us slower folks could see the faster runners ran through the final miles of the course. A taste of beer around 17 miles then back onto the main riverside drag for the final 6 or 7 miles into the finish.

And the finish was brilliant. At 22 miles, three ladies started running with me and one asked how I would feel getting passed by girls. I had saved up a push to the finish anyway so it seemed like an opportune moment to kick into a faster gear. I ran an 8:10 through to the finish and it felt marvelous. It was the feeling that makes all of the training and early morning worth while. Until the next one.

Its time to revisit this blog.

I set out to run the first 10 miles at 9:35, miles 10-18 at 9:09, then close the final 8 miles at 8:55 which should have theoretically brought me under 4 hours. The idea was to gauge the body at each interval and determine whether I was ready and able to go faster. The problem started when I began by running with the 4:15 pace runners. After a few miles I asked the question of what mile per minute pace they were running and learned that it put me slower than my goal. From there, the math was fuzzy at best and I just kept pushing my time down from miles 4 through 18. I tried to keep it around 9:05 to make up for the lost time but wasn’t sure whether the calculations would work out. In addition. as the race went on my math skills became worse and worse to the point that I had to ask a volunteer at the 20 mile mark how to calculate 9 x 6. The answer would tell me whether a 9 minute pace would get me there and of course the answer was no.

From that point, I just pushed as fast as I could go which ended up to be around 8:30 per mile or so. This resulted in passing many, many people and wondering whether I could sustain the pace. It was hard, but it felt good and it never felt that my body would quit. I tapped into solid reserves and knew the entire time that I had fueled well and that I had trained hard to be in this position. The images here show it all.

What a great experience. I biked 70 miles yesterday and ran a 5 mile race in Central Park today through some serious heat. What’s evident is that my barriers are changing and that my body can do much, much better and more. It will be interesting to adjust my expectations and to get more serious about results and training.

Saturday was a 22 mile run round and round the park. The brilliant new garmin watch made a huge difference and allowed me to diverge from the main loop while still tracking total distance. Ended running a 9:47 pace though I’m not sure of the total run time. That pace would translate to roughly 4:22. If I can get some good speed training in this week and next, fuel and rest properly before the race, and pick up time on the flatter course I might just get under 4:15.
Did a three mile run today to clear the legs out and felt strong again. Now it’s into the home stretch and focusing in on the race and mental preparation.

Total – 3:16

Steady steady.