Flying Pigs and Perfect Pace. Fo' real.

I decided on fifteen miles today. Yeah I know Hal said I should run thirteen, but I was craving a challenging distance. I have not run more than a half marathon distance in about 4 years and I've been anxious to tackle longer distances since I started this training schedule. So fifteen became my magic number. A friend of mine got me started on a trend of always wearing knee high (which are usually over-the-knee since I'm just barely 5'3") tube socks. They remind me not to take myself too seriously. Also, I hope that they challenge people to work harder in a race. Heaven forbid that you get smoked by a girl in knee high tube socks. I now proudly own several pair and for today's run I chose the flying pigs.


I don't have a long route. I know every tenth mile of the boardwalk for a 10 mile (or less) out-and-back. I can't imagine multiple loops for a training run on the boardwalk. Since this is the closest safe place to run, the boardwalk is my place when the weather is ideal. This run put me far south of home where the boardwalk kinda ends. I had to improvise (and make sure I didn't get lost) by running on some main roads and some private streets in order to try and get my full 7.5 miles in one direction. I came up short and had to turn around at 6.75 miles. I passed my town and went into the neighboring town just north to complete the last mile and change of the run. Sometimes I forget how beautiful the shore front properties are in this area. I ran with an ocean view through Ocean Grove, Bradley Beach, Avon, Belmar, Spring Lake and Sea Girt AND BACK and did the remaining difference on the Asbury Park boardwalk. I'm blessed to have this beautiful place to run!

For my first marathon, I have a goal time of 4:30. I kinda think I can do a little better, but I'm playing it safe. I know there will be other marathons in my future and I'll have plenty of opportunities to obsess on getting better and better at this distance.

Today, I was determined to run as close to my race pace as possible. For me, it's hard to go slow like that especially when I know that speeding up will help me finish the run faster. I rarely do it, but I ran with a Garmin Forerunner. It's a great training tool, BUT one must use it carefully. I never run with the heart rate strap. Watching my heart rate actually makes my heart rate go up! (I've tested this.) Also, I have to fight looking at the thing every 20 seconds. The watch is fairly heavy and large and the last buckle hole is too tight, but the second to the last buckle hole is too loose... I have considered wearing it around my neck in a Flavor Flave type fashion but that would be even more annoying. But this thing shows you your pace, distance and time. So I was able to watch myself and make sure that I did not exceed 6.2 mph (I just picked that number) for very long. Running at 6.0 was hard but once I figured out how to stride to make this pace work, it wasn't so bad. I noticed that my ego passively gets the best of me- whenever someone passed, I would speed up. Whenever I passed a runner that I recognized, I would speed up. Whenever people were looking at my socks for too long, I would speed up.

Anywho, without too much effort, I accomplished another negative split. This time it was only a difference of two minutes, but I couldn't allow for much more- I haven't run fifteen miles in a long time and I didn't want to chance hitting that notorious wall. I am impressed with this run- I didn't stop the clock for bathroom or hydration breaks (I wore a belt with two bottles in it!) and I know for certain that the second bathroom break took longer because I refilled my bottles with water in addition to just using the facilities. (That's right I used boardwalk bathroom sink water...) Additionally, during the second half of the run, I stopped to adjust my patella strap and I also stopped once to stretch.

Here's what I accomplished:

15.02 miles in 2:32:47. Not bad for the longest distance I've run in years!!! And I felt like I could've kept going. I'll say it again and again, I am living proof that anyone can do it. You just have to want to do it more than you want to quit. Particularly when it sucks. Really, it's that simple.