Great Finish

This Sat. we completed our tough 20 miler.  35 runners joined in, and we ran 20.1 miles, took us 5:08, and the average pace was 15:20.  We get these numbers from several Garmin watches which are what our PLs wear, plus other folks also have them.  Generally, we don't stop the watches when we are waiting at stop lights or when we pause at the water stations, so the average pace is calculated on the total time it takes us to complete the distance.  If you figured we spent at least 8 min. waiting for all the long traffic lights and the water stations, then we clearly were right on pace with our 15min/mile pace goal..ie. 4 miles/hr. x 5 hr. = 20 miles.

But more importantly than the time and pace was the strong finish everyone had in completing the 20 miler.  I know a few folks dropped back, but they still finished. And a few other folks dropped back....hitting the "wall" and eventually caught back up.

 
I'm sure a bunch of us are feeling it today, I for one have a very sore and tender left heel...not sure why I'm having this problem now, since I've never had it before, but I think it's time to replace my orthotics.  I did replace my shoes, and if you are having any foot issues, and you're still on the same pair as when we started in September...it might be time for a new pair. The good news is that my leg and knees are feeling just fine.

The morning started pretty weird in that it was very wet and drizzy when I left my house, and had to use my windshield wipers on the freeway heading out.  I totally did not anticipate rain for the 20, and was starting to get a bit worried, not that we couldn't run in the rain, but that it might have discouraged others not to show up.
The clouds didn't look too bad, and by the time we got going, they were starting to break up.  As it turned out, it was a great day to run the 20, and we finished under clear skies, and the air temps stayed just cool enough.

The route was not bad in that we basically did a short loop south to just get warmed up, then went north to the top of San Vicente, did the golf course loop, and did another loop back to Bundy and back, and then it was just heading all the way back from there.  There was enough mix of hills, flats, dirt paths, grass, and nice neighborhoods to provide for distractions, and I would say the group hung together pretty well.

Mary goes all in for the full ice treatment

I believe that our past workouts, especially the hill training at Dodger last week did prepare us well for this long run.  The question came up during the run about how does only going 20 miles get us ready for completing a full 26.2.  Good question....different theories abound in the training for a marathon, and there are a plethora of ways people train, the Leggers actually run a full 26 before the marathon, but the Roadrunners have never done that. The basic idea is that if you train and build up your aerobic endurance...working on all these long runs, add in some strength with the faster and hill runs...then you will have what it takes.

Vivian cooling it

This 20 miler showed how much we had, given that we only ran 10 miles last week, and it's been weeks since we ran that 18 miler in the rain, but it's a cumulative effect. And so it will be with the marathon...all these weeks, months of training, working out, and whether we did all the work or not....we are as prepared as we are, and a large percentage of it is a belief and faith that we can do this. It's a combination of good workouts, backing off and recovering, and then just going out and doing what's necessary. And so it will be with the marathon....we will be ready.

Christi and Janet sharing the ice

Keep up with the good work...we're coming into the final stretch,

Walt