1st 20 Miler DONE

Today was the day. Did my first 20+ mile run and it was awesome. We met up with several of the Cruisers and went to the River Trail. The weather was perfect. We started just past 6:30am and it was about 54 degrees then. It was still warm running but not hot. I never hit the wall, never felt like I couldn't go anymore. There were three of us doing 20+ today and afterwards Jackie said "too bad the marathon is not today, we could of all done it with no problems."

There was probably at least 8 Cruisers that started this morning. Some were only doing about 10 miles. Annette was doing 9-10 and then riding her bike to support the long runners. It's always nice to have people out there helping watch out for everyone. We decided on doing an out and back from the Skate Park to the Big Dam Bridge which is right at 9+ miles, then the long runners would do the route again looping back through a couple other trails on the way back. This worked out really good.

The first 10 miles seemed like it flew by. We were using Galloways Run/walk program, running one mile and then walking, usually about 30 seconds, sometimes 60 max. This worked really well in saving our energy for the long run. We did see some other Cruisers on the trail, Marianne, Gary and Curtis were biking and then Gary and Curtis ran with us some. It was great to run in to them and get to spend some time running with them.

Curtis, Jane, Gary & me

Not much to write about on the miles other than Jane, Jackie and Annette on her bike were awesome to run with. We helped each other pass the miles. The only small fade I felt was around mile 18. My feet were hurting a little and my legs felt like they were trying to stiffen up. Somehow I ran up the hill before the golf course without walking then when I hit the woods just past the golf course I faded a little. Annette was there on the bike and had a fresh dose of Accelerade. After getting a good drink of this I was good to go. The last hill I just powered on up and never walked it. Then something clicked in and I started running about a 9:30ish mile, swinging my arms and doing everything like I was supposed to. It was almost like everything was perfect for just a few minutes. I hit the 20 mile mark shortly there after and we kinda threw our arms up in celebration. From there we ran it on in to the Skate Park and then did almost a one mile recovery walk. I told Jane I think the walk was harder than the run. Total miles for the day, 21.3! Special thanks to Jane and Jackie for running with me and Annette for staying with us on her bike through the last 10 miles. It was a great day with great people!

Jackie, Jane, Curtis and me at about 13 miles

That was me about to hit the 20 mile mark

Here are my stats per my garmin:
Total run miles 20.1 (added .93 afterwards for cool down walk)
Run time - 3:54:34
Average pace - 11:41 - my goal for today was 11:39 so i barely missed it
Splits
1 -10:21
2-10:36
3-10:55
4-11:34
5-12:03
6-11:00
7-10:26
8-12:38
9-11:54
10-11:34
11-9:20
12-10:57
13-11:56
14-11:39
15-12:35
16-13:10
17-13:16
18-14:11
19-12:36
20-8:54
Avg. HR - 153 - 80%
3395 Calories

In looking at the overall time I'm happy. Looking at some of the mile times I really don't remember them being that slow. We did lose signal a few times but the distance is pretty much dead on. Based on my heart rate I could have stepped up the pace a little but then again, it might not have been as good a run. After all, this is training and the real marathon will be much faster. I was a little worried on this run that my achilles problem would worsen but it didn't. Seems to be the same weather I run 3 miles or 20, though today it did slow me down. Can't wait to try out my new shoes. They should be broke in good before my next long run.