Relay for Life 18 miler!!

Yesterday was the Relay for Life and we had a team set up at work. We decided to meet at 6pm and walk as a group and have some pizza. Andi and I took the boys over and did some walking (and dancing with Matt). Then took the boys home. I went back to the event which was at Highland High School to meet Clay and his son Zac. I planned on running from 9-11 but had some posterior tibialis soreness during the day so I decided to just see how it went.

I ran the first 4 miles on my own and felt really good. I brought along my camelback, gu, and shot blocks for refueling. The first 5k was about 21:30. At 4 miles I met up with Zac and we had a pretty even pace going most of the way for the next 7 miles. We were averaging 7:30 to 7:50 miles most of the way. A few times I looked at my garmin and it said 7:15 pace but we were still both able to hold conversation and didn't appear to be laboring. I don't have an official split for Zac but we did those 7 miles in about 54:00. He is really becoming quite fit. Unfortunately, Clay's asthma was affected by the dust (Highland has a dirt track), and he was unable to join us.

After the Pattens left I continued on my run towards 2 hours. My leg did bother me slightly during the run but was not worsening so I plugged on. I increased the pace to near threshold pace for the next 4-5 miles running about 6:20-6:30 pace and it really felt pretty easy (Those hill repeats sure work wonders). I hit the half marathon at about 1:38:00 and hit 16 miles at 1:56. During those last few miles I decided I would do two more miles as a cool down after I hit 16, and for about 2 laps I even thought about making it an even 20 but that didn't last long.

I set a record for myself for consecutive miles run on a track. The run ended at 18 miles in 2:11:19 which is 7:17 pace. The workout ended up being more like a McMillan fast finish long run (see March 2, 2008).

My posterior tibialis was not sore but my L achilles was. When I got home I did a 10 minute ice bath on both of my lower legs and will probably repeat it on the L side tonight. I have to practice what I preach you know.

Speaking of which our third running clinic went really well on Saturday morning, but we only had 10 attendees. We have our last one for the year on November 8th titled, Strength Circuit Training for Runners. It is going to be worth it so hopefully we have a good crowd.