A month before the San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon, I knew I needed to put in 18-20 miles in my training to be prepared on marathon day. The last time I ran 18 miles was a while ago, so I needed to convince both body & mind that I could do it. I headed out around 5:45am with a plan to run as many miles as I could until I met with my pace group at 7:30am around muscle beach in Venice. With that goal in mind, I was off.
Now for anyone who is a newbie, please know that the first 2, 3, 4 miles are always the least fun. Actually, it wasn't until I hit mile 6 that I started to feel good. The first 4 miles are definitely still a warm-up. This is the "joy" of long-distance running - You have something good to look forward to. It may be hard at the beginning (and hard at the end) but the middle is usually worth it.
So I ran to the Marina. Parked alongside the water around 7am, I spotted people sitting behind the wheel of their cars, enjoying the sun glistening atop the Marina water. It was really beautiful. I should do that too. Drive to the Marina in the morning and sleep in my car drunk with the beauty of the view. Then again, these people may have actually been drunk.
So I turned around at the Marina and caught up with Legger 12's at around my 9 mile mark and their 2.5 mile mark. I joined them for 7.5 miles north into Santa Monica/Brentwood territory and back to the beach. I added an additional two miles on my own.
The run felt good. I averaged about a 11:50 min/mile pace which I am happy with. Of course, all I did the rest of the day was eat, lay around, watch TV and sleep - basically mirroring the activities of Victoria, my cat. That's the one drawback of running long miles, it leaves me exhausted. But sometimes, it's soooo nice to just lay around and relax.
Happy running!
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