Sept 9th - 22 miler at Sawyer Camp. Fun!

Yep, it was a lot of fun. The weather was excellent (about 60F) and I felt good throughout the run. I was late in the morning (started at about 7.45am) but kudos to Abheek, Pramod and Chakri for coming back for me after doing 1.5 miles one way. So, they were always 3 miles ahead of me in the run. As we were all doing 22 miles, I had finished 19 when they finished their 22. Anil Rao (who has graduated from marathons to 50 milers and 100 milers) was volunteering at a water stop and decided to give us his precious company as well. With music blaring out from the speakers of my Palm Treo, Abheek giving out puzzles, Anil telling us about his practice runs, and we talking about whether to sign up for the Big Sur marathon next year or a 50K, miles were, if not flying, passing by comfortably.



I finished in 4:01:40, which corresponds to 11 minute/mile pace. But I think I felt good and that makes all the difference in my confidence for the marathons ahead. I know that we took several ~2 minute breaks for either Gu or restroom or stretching and we were really running at an average of ~10.30 minute pace. The 1 minute walk after each mile is helping a great deal as well by letting us conserve our energies for the last few miles of the run. Bottomline, my morale is high going into October!