Today was pretty nice. Got up a bit late, so I missed the seminar on weight training and arrived just as stretches were starting. That turned out to be no big deal, apparently the speaker was less than inspiring. Its been a pretty weak week as far as running goes so far, so I’m a little uncertain as to how I’ll do.

We headed out of RunTex and went East along the trail to 35, over the freeway, and up towards Longhorn Dam. The few hills are definately getting to be much less noticable, even the tall one heading up over the dam itself. Turning back West on the north side of the river, we started back to 35 again. This time, I did remember to take a Gu at about the 4 mile mark (I’d like to do one ever 4 during the marathon itself). Under the freeway, all the way back to MoPac, down the footbridge, and back West to RunTex. No Gu for MoPac (mile 8), for two reasons: first, it seems like we’re almost back at that point (2 to go) - I need to get over this concern. Second, well, I only had the one Gu on me.

The last mile was very fun - after our final water stop, someone asked me if I wanted to run it in with her. We did about a 9:30 pace to the end, which felt really good. I had been getting a little tired before then, but the energy came back with a little faster pace and a taste of competition. Its funny how much the mind can control the body in these situations. The group finished in 1:55, which is right on pace (plus about 5 minutes for bathroom breaks and powerade refills along the way).

I really like this route. I guess its relativelly long (80% of our max so far), but since its just the whole trail loop and we’ve run parts of it for so long, it doesn’t seem too bad. Then again, the 20K wasn’t that big of a deal either (compared to some in my group) and it had a lot more hills.

I’m questioning my pace decision again. It still seems like I should be more concerned with keeping my consistent training group (good people), and with simply finishing the marathon well. Still, I’m looking at a 4:50 finishing time right now (10:30 runs with 1 walkminute every mile ~= 11:00 pace) which is getting less appealing.

I think that I’ll try to run harder during the 3M half marathon (if I do it), which won’t be as big of a deal at that point, just to see how I feel. I don’t think that a 9:00 pace is realistic, but I would like to average more like 10:00 (with walk breaks) than 11:00.

Calories: 100 (1 Gu)
Calories burned: 1,370
Miles remaining: 217.2

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