7/24 --- 14 miler

The forecast said --- cloudy with temps in the low 80s. I was glad that it was not going to be sunny and in the 90s. When we started out, it seemed pretty pleasant to me. But the humidity is so deceiving sometimes....in no time we were sweating like pigs and it ended up being a wet and icky run!

We had to run 14 miles of the Minuteman trail. We all met at Alewife, the coach went over some details, we did our warm-ups and started around 7:20 am. We were to run to the mile marker past Lexington Center and the turn back and return to Alewife.

The first 5 miles of my run were pretty good. I maintained a pace of 12 mins/mile and I was pretty happy with that. I did take small walking breaks in between, but kept them to a minimum. At 3.5 miles, the half marathoners turned back, they were going to run just 7 miles that day. During my 6th mile, I met some of the fastest in the group who were on the way back. So they were almost 2.5-3 miles ahead of me. I must have passed three such runners, who on crossing me would clap and yell 'good job' to keep me motivated. Finally I could see Lexington center where we had a water stop and majority of the group was drinking water there on their way back. At the water stop, I also did some stretches and waited for my running buddy to catch up with me. After she had her water break, we continued to run till the mile marker. I tried to run at her pace as she seemed really tired and exhasuted. I would run a bit ahead and then walk or just run in place for her to catch up. I did not want to leave her behind...we are committed to pushing and motivating each other till the end. Till the end of my 12th mile, I had lost track of my time due to all the stops and did not bother with tracking it anymore. Till 12.5 (which actually was my longest till that day) I was fine. But after that my calves were just killing me, it felt like there were huge stones in my calves. My soles felt tired and sore. There was just 1.5 miles left to go, I manged to run/brisk walk another 0.5 mile. But after that I just could not. Running buddy caught up and we just walked the last 1 mile till the end. A few runners were waiting for us, we did our stretches and then we all went and had brunch. It was lots of fun.

So all in all, although I did not run the whole 14 miles and walked the last one mile, I am satisfied with my run. My longest run before this had just been 11 miles and so stretching it to 14 was really asking for too much.

The rest of the weekend was spent just lazing around. I finished 'The girl who played with Fire' by Steig Larsson. Loved it much more than the first book in the trilogy and now cannot wait to read the last one. I will write about the books in my other blog.