Almost a Half

Sonya and I met early today to get started on our marathon training. We ran 13 miles - darn near a half. We left my house at 5:45, drove to Pt. Defiance and started our run. There is a road looping the park that is called Five Mile Drive. Amazingly, if you stick to the road, it is five miles! I kind of laugh, because there is one spot where we always cut through the parking lots, which I discovered shortens the run to 4.8. This is an extremely hilly run - in fact, it's the guts of our infamous Sound to Narrows. Our plan was to run halfway up the big hill, turn and run down to the beach, run along the promenade by the water, then up the ferry ramp, into town for a long around-the-block, then two loops of Five Mile Drive. That route took us by the cars three times. It worked out very well, though on the second hilly loop, we decided that our 16 miler next weekend will be done somewhere flat.

When we got down to the beach, I discovered I had only pushed the start button on my watch once, which meant it was still on stand-by and wasn't recording time. We estimated our time at close to 10 minutes, since I had looked at the clock when we pulled in and we figured we started 5 minutes later. It's not a big deal, except for those walking breaks I take - the watch has a rolling countdown timer that tracks those for me. We walked through the parking lot to the beach, then started the timer up for the rest of the run. We finished our funny little loop, and ran by the cars for the start of the two bigger loops. We didn't need to stop by the cars yet, so we ran on by. The first loop was great and we both felt strong.

As we came down the last hill on the loop we could see the cars in the distance and we could see some of the running group waiting for us. We tried to time it so we'd be by the start in time to pick up the group for our usual 8:00 am run - it worked out perfectly. We quickly refilled our gu supplies and continued. The second loop was much tougher. I could feel the fatigue in my legs on the hills, but we kept going. Rick, Melissa and Elaine were running with us and kept us entertained and moving. It was funny, but in the last mile I started feeling like I was getting a second wind, which makes me feel confident for next weeks run.

From this point on, every increase in mileage is a new distance for both Sonya and I - a half marathon is the farthest we've ever gone. I'm excited to break some new barriers and pick up the mileage. Amy pointed out yesterday that half the fun is plotting the routes - I think she's right. Trying to figure out next weekends route occupied our minds for at least a mile or so.

Our group was small today - many of our runners were at the Seafair Marathon and Half, plus Eric, Steve and George were running one of the training runs for the White River 50 mile. Although the organized run was something like 25 miles, they were only going to do 18. I'm anxious to hear how the race went for Rob and the others, and how the guys liked the first section of WR50. For now though, I think I've earned a nap!

Sunday: 13 miles, approximate time: 2:40 (two bathroom stops, one car stop)
Total for the week: 40.2 miles, 7:54:26

Oh, that reminds me, the best thing about my runs lately has been my low heartrates. Today my average was 142, my high was 159, even with all the hills! Back in 2003, my averages ran between 159 and 168, with peaks around 178. The stress tests showed that when my hr climbed into the 160s, my blood pressure rose dramatically, which led the doctors to specify walking breaks and keeping it below 160. The averages include those walk breaks, but up until surgery, I often recorded averages of around 153, including walk breaks. Apparently, illness was driving it up. Cool, huh?