Nine on the 9th (and a 5K!)
Nancy, that crack-the-whip race director, is at it again. Not happy with just making us run eight miles on December 8, she somehow convinced us to run nine miles on February 9th. (And even though she refused to take ME up on my offer to run 22 miles on December 22nd, I decided to buck up and join in on the fun).
Because my darling and I are training for yet another marathon, we had a slightly longer run on the docket (12 miles). We were both feeling somewhat creaky, so we opted to run the very flat Burke-Gilman trail, starting at the Fred Meyer in Ballard and going until we hit the halfway point (just past University Village).
We got off to a rocky start. My darling’s feet have been bothering him, so he’s trying out new insoles and is taping the last two toes on his left foot. He had to stop several times in the first few minutes to adjust his shoes. He then started getting nervous he wouldn’t have time to get back to prepare for his client meeting at 2 p.m. (he’s a photographer and he was meeting with a bride). We had hit the trail before 9:30 a.m., but due to my pokey-Joe pace he wasn’t sure we’d make it in time. So at the 5K mark he bid me adieu and headed back to our truck to drop a few things off. He then headed through the neighborhood back to our house in order to get his 12 miles in.
While I would have loved to have him along for the entire run, it worked out better this way. I’m really trying to slow my pace down for my long runs, and I tend to speed up when running with him. My goal was to keep my pace between 10 1/2-11 minutes per mile and my heart rate between 130 and 150.
Despite some wind gusts, the weather was quite pleasant (although I was glad to be wearing my hat and gloves). Because I’ve run this route so many times, I just became lost in my music. I turned around just past the 6-mile mark and slowed to a walk to down a ClifShot and a bottle of water. As I neared the 10-mile mark my quads started letting me know they were ready to stop, but I kept on (I reminded them there was a can of chocolate milk waiting for them in the cooler back at the truck). I finally crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 10 minutes, 19 seconds (for 12.5 miles). My overall average pace was 10:25 (10:21 for the 5K, 10:27 for the remainder) and my average heart rate was 137. Perfect!
February 10th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Good run. I think I’ve been to the Fred Meyers in Ballard. Though our families are from South Carolina and we’ve lived in Kenya for most of the last 22 years, our son decided to go to Seattle Pacific. So, we got to go to Seattle a couple of times. I enjoyed running in the SPU area.
You commented about getting lost in your music b/c the route was so familiar. After my run yesterday, I drove back over some of my route on the way to Wal-Mart and realized I had just completely zoned out for several minutes at a time — there were whole sections that I didn’t even remember passing, even though I remembered the spots on either end. Kind of cool to be able to let my mind wander and still keep up my pace.
February 10th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Hi Bob! Thank you for stopping by. Isn’t it funny how you can zone out like that? Of course, you have to be careful that you don’t zone out so much you end up running right out in the middle of traffic! (Fortunately that’s pretty tough to do on the Burke-Gilman).
February 10th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Thanks for the joke. That’s a good one, and if you don’t want to claim it as your own and are looking for a 7 year old, you can borrow mine. Great job on your race. I actually strapped on the heart monitor for the first time in a long, long time yesterday just out of curiosity. I think it’s probably a good thing for me to start using regularly to improve my cardiovascular training.
February 10th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Hi Bets – I’m going to use your 10:27 pace and figure out a time for nine unless you have a split at nine. Let me know if you have something different. I miss your pics, last time they were adorable. Hope your honey is okay!!
Thanks so much for playing along. Yeah, I did kinda ignore that 22 suggestion (sorry, I’d have to put like 3 or 4 weeks worth of runs together HA HA!) It’s great to have lots of people doing this together.
Look for a race report on my blog sometime tomorrow.
No Sweetheart mischief on this run? Surely you two….:D !!??
XOXO
February 10th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
He’s doing okay, but has a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday (he’s one of those types who hate to go to the doctor since he’s afraid of what they’ll find!). And no, no sweetheart mischief 🙂
February 11th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Congrats! Sounds like you had a good run in the end. Glad to hear your sweetheart is at least on the road to recovery too!