I ran the full distance of a marathon this morning (26.2 miles) and was finished by 8:25 am. My marathon time was 3:35:47 (avg pace 8:14/mi). I ran 16 miles of those with Dale Lister. Come back later tonight for the full story. It is pretty comical.
Update:
So the plan this morning was to meet Dale at Marie Kerr Park at 6:00am and go 20 miles. I even called to confirm with him and reminded him to change his clocks. I went around the house and set all the clocks in my house ahead one hour and went to bed. I decided the night before that I would run the 3.5 miles to meet Dale instead of drive which meant I would have to get up a little earlier. I left my house at 20 til and ran to the park. It was freezing this morning literally (30 degrees). I was happy to have worn my tights, gloves and ear band. I had to push the pace because I was running a little late but when I got there Dale was not there yet. I ran around the parking lot of Vons a few times, still no Dale. I then did the 1.25 mile loop around the park, still no Dale. I was thinking, "this is not like Dale." Then I realized that it was still pitch dark out and not getting any lighter. Why was it still so dark? I came to the conclusion that I HAD left at 20 til...20 til 5! I guess my alarm clock automatically changes for daylight savings and I added an extra hour. Dale would not be coming for another 45 minutes so I continued to run loops around the park until a little before 6:00am when I finally saw his van. By this time I had already run 9.3 miles. Dale was ready to go and we started up Rancho Vista on our way to Quartz Hill to add some hills into our long run (Dale is running the Boston Marathon in 5 weeks!). We zig zagged our way to 70th and L and then hit all the major hills in Quartz Hill finishing at N-8 and 50th. By this time I had decided to run the 26.2 mile distance and needed about 4 miles to finish. We did an out and back on N-8, adding another hill, and then I parted with Dale and headed home reaching the marathon split in my neighborhood in 3:35:47! Dale ran back to his car and finished 20 miles for the day. I did not eat anything before leaving and only brought approx 20oz bottle of powerbar recovery drink. I was tired and hungry by the end of the run and couldn't believe that I had only completed half the distance that I will cover in 5 weeks. Who talked me into this?
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I already know the rest of the story.... Hey Karl, I have a question for you about the clinic you gave on recovery. You said that after a 5K race, we should take it easy for how many days? Does running a marathon with multiple hill repeats count as taking it easy? (asked the guy who ran 20 miles the morning after racing the same 5K)
Dale, in this stage of my training for LD50 a 26 mile run is a standard weekly long run day (only half my race distance). As far as the 5k goes it was faster than threshold pace but it was more like 10k pace not 5k. So it wasn't run all out. I don't think anyone could run all out in that kind of wind. Today I was taking it easy pace-wise just pushing the limit on the distance. Finally, when training for an ultra you have to push the limits a little, get your body used to running when tired, after 40 miles I anticipate being VERY tired. Does pushing the limit of effort, time, and distance increase my risk of injury? Probably, but I am willing to take that risk.
There are always a lot of people that spontaneously decided to run the LA Marathon each year after seeing the commercials on TV. It would be a sure bet that very few of those people could run a 3:35:47 on a completely flat course!
Great job Karl!
This explains the nut costume! Mom
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