Saturday, November 13, 2010

13.45 miles in 2:18'43"

at 5:30 this morning, my dailymile friend bryan j. picked me up and together we headed to gorun wichita for an early morning run. i was a bit nervous since my intention was to run a half marathon distance, something i'd never done before. earlier in the week tony b. and i had planned to meet up in wellington to do this distance, but it worked out better for both of us to meet up at gorun wichita instead. (a great store run by dailymiler kevin s. by the way.)

around thirty people showed up to run a brand new course created by patrick g. i believe it was the zigzaggiest route i've ever done. i couldn't map it if i tried. i just know we went way south and then at the end of the official course continued on central back to maize and ran north back to the store.

early in the run i felt great. we ran around a 9-minute pace which was what i dreamed earlier in the week i could do the whole way.

around mile three i woke up from that dream. i started feeling nauseous, so we slowed a bit and a group that included dailymiler blaine v. and three women caught up with us. the six of us ran together for a short time and then two of the women turned around. their plan was to run eight miles and we had just passed the 4 mile mark. a mile or so later, we lost mandy (i think) and then at five and a half we lost blaine.

that was when i started feeling a bit better, so we picked up the pace again. around mile six and a half, we started encountering runners who were turning around and running back up the course. the lead pack looked strong as they flew north. oh to be fast. later! right now i just need to get used to longer distances.

a short time later, we turned into a beautiful housing development. the streets were tree lined and aflame with the colors of fall. even in the summer months this will be a nice place to run with all the shade. around seven and a half miles we passed bryan j. and mark on their way back. we kept going up what i think they called heartburn hill. not quite as bad as heartbreak i guess, but a hill nonetheless.

we wandered around some more and eventually ended up at 119th and central, the end of the official route. that gave us 10 miles, a half mile longer than my longest run to date. (i'm not counting the accidental 50K.) from 119th and central we continued on to maize road and then headed north to the store. that added almost another three and a half miles. i now have the official map made up on dailymile and i was only 2/100ths of a mile off in my original calculation. i ended with 13.45 miles instead of 13.43 miles.

thanks go to patrick g. for developing this route.

so i've done a half marathon now without really training for it. i'll keep working on that distance and maybe a few longer runs so that in 2011 i can have a faster official half.

speaking of that goal, does anyone know of a good half near wichita that i can run in in april or may that's not on a sunday? (a long shot, i know.) being a pastor makes sunday morning races a bit difficult. saturday would be perfect. please help.

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