Striders Longest Long Run

At breakfast this morning [well, lunch if you wanted to go by what the time was on our watches], I pointed out to Steve and Barb Shepard that today's Longest Long Run was one of the things that I saw as a major benefit of the Houston Striders when I was looking at running clubs in Houston over the previous year. It was pointed out to me that another club in town had a similar long run; however, the Striders do it on THE marathon course! (Oops, hope there aren't any kids reading this!)

One of the things that stuck out in my mind also is what Noah Matthews had to say in the February 2003 post-marathon edition of the Stridelines: "Running the Striders Longest Long Run. It is the most important single run of the training, because it's on the marathon course. Once I've done it, I think, "nothing to it now, I've already done this race once" And I go into the
Marathon much more relaxed and a more positive attitude. (The mental part.)"

I'd have to agree. Even though this had been on the calendar forever, there was still a temptation of shutting the alarm clock and going back to sleep this morning BUT I'm glad that I didn't.

I was running a little late getting started, and was low on gas, but made it down the Hardy Toll Road and Highway 59 to the George R. Brown Convention Center. Since I didn't ask anyone where we were meeting up and the best place to park, I ended up parking on the north end and got in a little jog to where we all got started at at 6:30 a.m.

There was a good group out! Even though Steve's sign-in sheet at breakfast later showed 58 runners, there really seemed to be more than that.

My focus for the day was to take my time, focus on relaxing and attempt to run as much if not all of the 21 miles. Even though I had read on the SMARTies' Yahoo Group messages about a 23-mile day, I didn't even think about it again until Steve was going through some formalities before we started.

I ran comfortably to the first water stop (near mile 2). I spent a little time running with Geoff Guenther and Sam Ogundele at different parts and remembered Carole Flad, Pam Paling and Lisa Ruthven passing me; however, I kept reminding myself that I needed to not worry about that and do what I was able to do.

From there to the second water stop at around mile 4, I ran with Charlie Rodriquez, who was running with his sister from Round Rock. She was going to be running the Aramco Half Marathon as part of her gear up for the Freescale Marathon in Austin in February. Charlie's a great guy who just ran New York City early last month in 4:31:32. I felt honored to be able to run with or near him for a little ways. [Charlie's PR was earlier in 2004 at Austin in 3:48:25.] When we got up to that second water stop where Loren and Judith Neufeld were waiting for us, Whitney La Rocca came in behind me and asked me if I was doing the 21 miles. I said, "Yes." She said, "Well, I'm going to hang with you then."

I had to laugh. The previous Saturday at Cullen Park, I've turned around on the first 5.5-mile out and back and I hear these quick steps behind me and I was thinking to myself, "Where in the hell are they coming from?" I thought it might have been somebody starting there run and here it was Whitney leaving me in the dust (until we got to the restrooms at the midway point).

I got out of that stop a little early and was still running close to Charlie, his sister, Pam and Lisa (as well as 15-year-old phenom Sara Collazos). At the third water stop, where we saw Gavin Dillingham and Noah Matthews, Whitney came in close behind and from there we ran together pretty much the rest of the way.

We saw Dusty Cook and Doug Flad again at mile 8, just past Allen Parkway, and then ran into Barb Shepard and Frank Halter close to mile 10. All the while, we both were running pretty steady. [Pam and Lisa had to stop to go to the restroom shortly past mile 8 and came into the mile 10 water stop just behind Whitney and I.] We lost a lot of runners that were running in our vicinty as many -- about 8-to-10 -- had turned around at mile 9 near Richmond to head back to the GRB.

Down Main, we felt a blast of cold air running on the Rice University paths as we got under the first set of trees. Lisa, Pam and Whitney were all ahead of me as we made the turn onto University. [And, for the record, I HATE that stretch around Rice with all of the curbs. Somebody should have an ADA complaint filed there. If you were in a wheelchair, you could go all the way through West University without a problem, but not around Rice.] So my ankles took a beating. As we all pulled into the mile 12 water stop, where we saw Loren and Judith again, Whitney said that she would wait at Wesleyan so that we could stay together running all the way to Richmond.

She also stated that at that point, we were at 2:04 of running time [which I was pleased to hear].

As we ran down University, with Whitney leading the way, we made the turn onto Wesleyan and she indicated that running time at mile 13 was 2:15 (and 2:19 at 13.4 -- the turn). [I was at 2:17 at mile 13 at the 30k.] We stayed close together all the way to the mile 14 water stop with Gavin and Noah.

From there we continued to head north to Westpark, turned left and went over the bridge before taking the right onto Newcastle. We agreed that it would be best to run on the right hand side of the feeder road to Richmond (and single file) as most of the faster traffic should be in the left hand lane. We got to Richmond [went on the north side of the street ... ouch on the ankles], turned right on to Post Oak and then made our way to the mile 16 water stop. [There were a couple of folks who caught us at Richmond and then didn't stop at mile 16. I would know them to see them, but I didn't take myself to learn their names.]

I took a GU at mile 16. [I usually don't have those at all. But Whitney was taking one and I figured that it wouldn't hurt. I actually had one at the mile 14 water stop at the Marine Corps Marathon and it didn't bother my stomach.]

We went up to San Felipe and hung a left then down to Tanglewood where we turned right and ran on the trail there. Whitney and I talked about what her PR time was (4:41, down from 5:09 the year before) last year at hp Houston. She said that she was shooting for under 4:30 this year. [I'm thinking, well, maybe I won't try to run with her in three weeks. That's pretty aggressive for me.]

We got to Chimney Rock, took the short right up to Woodway, and made the final right hand turn. Looking at the course map later, I realized that we were at about the 30K point. I got a blast of energy and was actually doing a few fartleks with the telephone polls along Woodway and got out ahead of Whitney heading into the mile 20 water stop where we saw Frank and Barb again.

I lead Whitney to the Arboretum along Memorial and then we ran to the light [to where I could have turned right and headed on in for a solid, 21-mile day.] However, I just didn't feel right leaving Whitney to do the last two miles by herself, even though that we her plan for the day.

The Memorial Loop was brutal. We stopped to get water at the water fountain so she could take another GU. After passing Beck's Prime and the PIM meeting location on the left, Whitney stopped to go to the restroom. I walked ahead -- taking my only significant walking break --figuring she would catch me, but she had started to cramp up a little bit. Once we got past the tree on the corner and turned right, we started running again and did so to the light on Memorial Drive where we needed to cross the road to finish. We turned right and then ran to the waiting group of Striders where we were welcomed with a much appreciated round of applause!

So .... I ran most of 23 miles. Which is significant for a number of reasons:

1.) Even though I ran three straight half marathons on subsequent weekends in late September and early October, I took a lot of walking breaks in the first 20 miles of the Marine Corps Marathon, especially after the halfway point (and, of course, walked 65% from 20-to-23 and 100% from 23 on in.)
2.) I walked a lot more than I expected at the 25K (even though there was a stiff headwind and it was 2 weeks after the MCM).
3.) I also walked a lot three weeks earlier at the 30K after mile 13, which I ran 2:17 to that point. [I finished in 3:30:19 for 18.6 miles ... still an improvement over 4:02 for 20 miles at MCM.]

Whitney said our running time was 4:13! So, there's an outside shot of getting under 5 hours, which would be a major accomplishment to drop my PR of 5:39:06, which will have come just 11 weeks before the hp Houston Marathon.

After we were done running, a group of 11 of us including Whitney, Barb and Steve, Dusty, Judith and Loren, Doug and Carole, Noah and Doug Spence had breakfast at IHOP. I had a great time and it was probably one of my best runs ever!