I'm officially past the half-marathon point. I covered 15 miles today! Just don't ask how my legs are feeling. Or, pretty much any muscle in my body, for that matter.I ran the Columbus Roadrunner's Club Winter Run (CRRC Winter Run), the 15 mile distance, this afternoon. We really lucked out with the weather, I was comfortable in my tech shirt and compression tights, but the course was tough. Here's the course map, and below is a screenshot of the elevation chart. I'm really glad I've been doing some hill repeats, I know I was passing a lot of people on the inclines.
And, with this run, I finally hit 30 miles for one week! Wahhoo!
The beginning of the run took a lot of restraint. There were some fast people, really fast people, there. I started off toward the back of the pack and had to force myself to keep above a 9:30 mile. Pacing was hard throughout... every time I stopped paying attention I found myself drifting toward an 8:30 - 9 mile. I recognized the 10:00 pace coach from MIT and tried to stay behind him, but lost him toward the end of the first lap.
15 miles was two laps of a 7.5 mile course. I forced myself to slow down for the first 10 miles, then for the last 5 I let myself go faster. The last two I really had to push through. But, toward the end I was passing a lot of people, and I ended up 3rd in my age group! I'm really glad I held back, otherwise I wouldn't have made it.
I'm not exactly sure what my real time was. I'm going with 2:23. My Garmin said 2:19, but I accidentally stopped it so it only accounted for 14.75 miles.
I'll post some more details later... probably tomorrow, including my splits. Right now I'm a little tired, and I only have 3 episodes left in Season 2 of Lost (come on, Jack, figure out that something is not right with Michael!)
90 days until the Cleveland Marathon. (continued)
