New adventures!

15 miles today! My longest distance yet! I didn't feel like I ate enough food or drank enough water yesterday so I was a bit nervous going into the run today, especially since up to this point the longest I've run has been 13.1 miles. Not too much longer, but still.

My run started at 7:15am and this was my first time on this training plan running on the north end of river road. The north end was where I did my half marathon last year, so I was familiar with the road, though I hadn't run on it since November. 

I had a nice easy start and at the 5 minute mark my pace was around an 11:19. I felt good with that and maintaining was my goal. Well, my first mile split ended up being 11 minutes even. From there my splits just got faster. 10:26, 10:31, 10:08, 10:04, etc. It seemed like my body was catching a rhythm so I just went with it. No resistance, no pushing. After the initial nerves before starting my mind started to relax and prepare for the journey. In fact, I didn't even hear the first few call outs for my time and pace...I mean I heard it talking, but I was so focused on the moment and my surroundings I missed the actual times. This was nice and reassuring. As I made my way north on the road I saw familiar points of interest and things I remembered along the way from last year. 

This would be an out an back run and the turnaround point would be 7 miles into the run. I was amazed at how fast I got to the 7 mile point. Not that I was going fast or even feeling like I was going fast, it was just that time was passing with ease. 

As I made it to the turnaround point I saw another woman running in the other direction back to Cocoa Village (my starting point) so when I looped around I used her as a focus point and an extra bit of motivation. Not too much longer a few cyclists passed by us. There was another woman just a bit in front of us running too. As the one cyclist rode by he suggested we move to the other side of the road because they just saw a gator in the direction we were heading. The other 2 women were just a bit ahead of my so when I heard his warning and saw the women switch to the other side of the road (not the side runners would usually use going in that direction) I quickly moved over.

Now granted by this point I was feeling surprisingly good. In fact the whole middle of my run was the best. But I did NOT want to encounter a gator or have to run any faster than I was running. I never did see the gator, but I did see a guy on the side of the road close to the water (no more than 20 feet from the road) and I just kept moving.  Less than a mile later the women moved back to the side of the road we were originally running on. Reviewing my splits after the run I did see that that mile was my fastest at a 9:35. Urgency definitely wakes the body up to do what needs to be done in the moment. Yay adrenaline and endorphins!

Not too much longer around mile 10 I hit a bit of a wall from my 9:35, I went to a 10:04 for the next split, then 10:15 and 11:03. For a while there I was holding around a 10:17 - 10:22 pace and thought I might be able to hold that to the end of my run. That wouldn't be the case so I accepted where I was in the moment and just kept trucking along, even though at times it felt like I was barely moving. There are more inclines on the north end so I was contending with the challenges they brought my way.

My slowest mile was 13 (also tied with my 11) with an 11:03 pace, but my last 2 miles got a little faster and my overall pace for the run was a 10:28! Fantastic! I was very pleased with my efforts and results. 

This was also the first run that I brought fuel with me. I brought a protein bar that I didn't end up eating, but I did have all of my fruit squeeze pack. I had about half the pack just after the hour mark between miles 6 and 7 and then again just before the 2 hour mark when I felt I was fading a bit between miles 11 and 12. My body seemed to tolerate it pretty well and I didn't feel nauseous. I'll keep experimenting on the rest of my long runs with other options. 

When I finished my run I tried to gradually bring my body to a stop and walked around for a few minutes after before completely stopping and sitting on a bench in the park to do a quick stretch before driving home. 

The run was the complete north end and just a mile of the south end ( 0.50 each way). As I entered the south end I was like "Damn, come race day after all I just did I have basically 12 more miles to go! Much respect to all those marathon runners out there. This is quite a challenge!

32 runs to go!