Saturday 10.6.12

My wife was doing the Dirty Girl Mud Run this morning and we had to get out of the house around 9am.  I had to decide whether to run before or later this afternoon.  I woke up at 5am this morning and my body wouldn't let me go back to sleep.  It was like withdrawals.  I didn't do anything yesterday and I just had to go.  I got all of my stuff together and ended up hitting the road at around 6:15am.  I had good incentive to get back to the house before we had to leave.  I was reading a race report from someone the other day.  She mentioned on the run portion of the Ironman to run slow at the beginning and if you think you are running slow, then run slower.  I definitely could have dialed it up early but did not.  My first 6-8 miles were all in the 10 minute range.  After that, I began to slowly speed the pace.  My last 2 miles were 9:26 and 9:09.  I really wanted to crack the 2 hour mark on the 12 miles.  Mission accomplished at something like 1:59:30.  I took honey gels for every thirty minutes and a loaded fuel belt with water.  The weather was right at 50 degrees this morning.  I donned the running tights for the first time this fall and a long sleeve shirt.  A little cool for my taste but very nice running conditions.  Knocking out the 12 miles was not hard today.  I paused a few times to throw away empty gel packets, eat a gel, or get through a stop light.  I added very little pause time today.  I pretty much ran straight through.  It might be a little cool tomorrow for the 4 hour bike ride.  My wife did great on the mud run and my running compadres, Joe and the Matrix, are in Arkansas this weekend.  Rich is running the Arkansas Traveler 100 Miler.  As of this entry, Rich has passed through mile 48 and is almost halfway there.  Joe is crewing for him and will do some pacing tonight.  I can't imagine what Rich is going through trying to cover 100 miles running.  Amazing.  Jimmy Buffett brought me home today with a little steel drum action from the great Robert Greenidge.  Very nice.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230637587