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March 21, 2006
20 Mile PR
Since I am now running Boston, I decided it was time to run a 20 miler. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will toss in another one this weekend - and if I am feeling particularly good and ambitious, I will run 22-23 this weekend. I met up with a Chicago group at Universal Sole for a 20 mile supported long run on Sunday. I have done this run for the past 3 years, and I ran the course 20 minutes faster this year than I did last year. That doesn't say much, really, since last year I was completely out of shape at this time and I think my longest run had been 6 miles. I cannot pass up the opportunity to run long with people, though! Maybe I'm slightly crazy.
So this weekend I ran with my friend Jessica and her father. Jessica is my age (26) and her father is in his 50s - he is still cranking out 3 hour marathons, and this fall he plans to run sub 3 in Detroit. We started off at a pretty good clip and I was a little worried that I was going to get dropped, but as the run progressed, my body woke up and I felt surprisingly good. I hung with them until mile 18.5. They kicked it up a notch to about 6:30 pace. I knew I wasn't ready for that - especially since this marks my first 20 miler of the year - but I kept an even pace and ended up running 2:22:00 for the course. That works out to 7:06 pace. I was actually shocked by this and even google mapped the route to make sure it wasn't short! I don't know what this means for Boston since I didn't have to worry about one hill, but I think it's a positive sign that I am in better shape than I think I am.
Of course, I am playing it extremely cautious right now as well. I have signed up for two Bostons and I never made it to the start. With 4 weeks to go, I do not want to do anything stupid (no running PRs on 6 mile training runs this time!). I cross trained yesterday and I felt fantastic . . . I am going to run for 60 minutes tonight and then do a workout tomorrow :) I might even do my workout tomorrow on a treadmill so that I can throw in some hills.
On a completely side note, I have to tell a story that I think is funny. It may or may not be funny to other people. My father came into the city yesterday and we went to the DePaul women's basketball game at All State Arena. He has coached at the same university for 30 years - I think he enjoyed being a spectator last night! DePaul won the game with a last minute surge . . . it was awesome. Anyway, the second half of the game, my dad and I met with four of his "old timer" friends. All of these guys are in their mid 60s, and my dad played baseball in the old-timer's league with them through his 40s. He even played little league and high school with some of them. As we were leaving the game, I noticed the four men limping down the stairs. Then Benny turns to my dad and says, "Hey, we should all go get our knees replaced at the same time and ask for a volume discount!" The volume discount line totally cracked me up.
Posted by bridget at March 21, 2006 10:24 AM
Comments
count me in for the volume discount in about 30 years! i am so psyched about your 20m. PR and the upcoming boston. it's so great to see you run healthily and happily. me, drew, and the kins will be cheering for you throughout boston in spirit.
Posted by: carrie at March 21, 2006 06:58 PM
Wow, it sounds like you're in awesome shape. And I'm glad to hear that running in memory of Margaret will knock some sense into you this time around :-)
Posted by: Alison at March 26, 2006 06:18 PM