Saturday, October 20, 2007

RFE TR #40

Total Miles Trained For Elijah: 320.1

17 miles - DONE.

I was pretty sleepy this morning at 5:30; I even hit the snooze button once, but got up before it went off. Chasen's mother is visiting, so I tried to be as quiet as possible while getting prepared to hit the road. Prior to leaving I told myself that I was really going to mind my pace today. I usually just get out there and try to do my best and finish the run... which is fine... but one can always try to pick it up a bit!

I hit 'start' at exactly 6:30 AM. I must say that I did pretty well. Mile 3 was a bit slow due to hills and 'dilly-dallying' but I got my game together after that. I was running on a road that I had never gone particularly this far on -- and guess what -- hills hills hills. I took it all in stride. HA! Now that's punny.

I sailed past the start of last week's World Wide Half Marathon Challenge. That was officially new territory for me. Racetrack Road came fairly quickly. I saw neither horses nor a racetrack... but there were some nice homes back there. I thought I might see Chasen and Beth (aka mother-in-law) at that point, but no such luck. I finally gave him a call at mile 9 as I was taking a break. He was on his way. Then, as always, we couldn't locate each other, so we didn't actually meet until mile 12. At that point I got a massage. Ain't life grand?!?

He followed me with his flashers on for the final five miles. La-tee-dah! Once I finally hit mile 15 I was really, really feeling it. I told him that at least I wasn't Maddy, Shirley or Petra -- after all, those brave souls had marathons to run this weekend! I had a mere two miles to go. 17 is no 26.2; we all know that.

On pure desire and thoughts of Elijah, I finished the last 2 miles. And in good fashion, judging by my splits. Take a look.

Mile 1: 12:15
Mile 2: 12:34
Mile 3: 13:37 (dilly-dallying)
Mile 4: 12:33
Mile 5: 12:23
Mile 6: 11:43 (wow!)
Mile 7: 12:31
Mile 8: 12:09
Mile 9: 13:09 (not so wow...)
Mile 10: 11:59 (wow!)
Mile 11: 12:45
Mile 12: 11:32
Mile 13: 12:38
Mile 14: 11:58 (wow!)
Mile 15: 11:42: (wow!)
Mile 16: 12:06
Mile 17: 11:07 (wow!)
Total: 3:28:49
Average: 12:17 per mile

I would like to officially toot my own horn. Can you believe my average was 12:17? I am so happy with that. My ankle did well, also. Not perfect, but well. I have it wrapped now for the rest of my going-out-and-about with our guest.

Six weeks until the marathon. Holy cow!

5 comments:

MarathonChris said...

Great job on today's 17 miles!!! And great job with the times on those miles. You are so going to rock that December marathon!!!

Anonymous said...

Excellent work as always! Keep taking care of yourself!

Irish Blue said...

Way to go Susan! Happy dance, happy dance, happy dance!!!

Unknown said...

I like the last 7 miles, look at that negative split for the workout... nice work. This run is going to pay you some good dividends!

peter said...

You are really progressing. Nice times, way to speed up the end of the run! 17 miles is hard.