13 mile long run, Saturday, Sept 24, not too easy!

On the face of it, this was a treat to us Chicago runners from the coaches. Having run the really long one (23-miler) last weekend, it was time to start tapering down and freshen up for the actual marathon. So, the prescription was only for 13 miles. Boy, when was the last time that we had to run only 13 miles on Saturday? I think it was July 25th for me, exactly 3 months ago from this run. To give you an idea of how long it was, I had not started writing this blog at that time.

The Sawyer Camp Trail is always so beautiful that I feel charged up on just seeing it from the freeway itself. (see picture above). On this day, it was cold (my car was showing 48 degrees outside) and everyone's fingers were somewhat numb. Manish, Chakri, and I ran together for almost the first 10 miles when Manish wanted to go a bit slower. Chakri and I ran the 13 together and I pushed him a bit. He was doing 23 miles on the day and so he had another 10 miles to go when I finished. Our mile splits were: 9:59, 10:37, 10:23, 12:22 (restroom break), 9:53, 10:48 (this was the tough mile#6), 12:32 (Gu Gel break), 10:15 (about 0.25 mile uphill), 8:50 (enjoying the tremendour downhill), 9:07, 10:29, 8:42, and 8:56. Total running time came out to 2:13, or an average pace of 10:13 min/mile. As can be seen, we picked it up in the last 5 miles, taking 87 minutes for the first 8 at nearly 11min/mile and 46 minutes for the last 5 at nearly 9:12 min/mile. (Later I learnt that Chakri finished 23 miles in about 4:10 and was feeling that we should not have gone this fast initially)

It felt good but I had thought it would be easier than it actually turned out to be. I mean my SF half marathon time was 2:09 and I felt much better there. May be the crowd plays a big role in this. I certainly hope so. In any event, I did feel that I pushed it, so I do NOT want to keep this pace for the first half at Chicago. I want to keep it at 10:45-11min/mile so that I get the confidence of running with in myself for the first half, and again try to go for the negative split overall...

The other experiment I had done was to not take any coffee in the morning. It certainly did not feel any different once I had started running, and so I am going to stick to a strict no-coffee policy, both on that morning as well as for 36 hours before the marathon. Secondly, I switched back to Powerbar (from the Clif bar, even though I do not like the taste of Powerbar as much) for my breakfast.

Oh yes, I decided to go for the massage from the entrepreneurial Kathleen who always shows up with a makeshift bed, bedding and cream to sooth those tired leg muscles of willing runners. Even though this was not the day when I felt the most tired or even needed it, I just wanted to feel the feeling of massaged muscles. Verdict: highly recommended!