Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Last tempo run before the Corning Wineglass Marathon...

Today the plan was to do 6 miles, with 4 at tempo pace of 7:38/mile. I met Brian out at the speed work area and by the time we were into the fast parts of our run, we had a good sized group of other runners as well: Paula, Gwyn (both of whom are running the half-marathon in Toronto this weekend), Jenny, Tori, Karen and Jody Durand, who had just finished his first half-marathon the previous weekend. Congrats, Jody!

Brian was doing a pace of about a minute per mile faster than me, so he was gone like a shot when we started into the tempo part of the run. I continued to 'conserve, conserve', and banged out a pace of between 7:31 and 7:37 for my four tempo laps, finishing at the faster end of that range.

The weather was about 70 degrees C., but the air was still thick with moisture from rains that we had earlier today. If I had to do a whole marathon in this weather, it might be an issue. But just six miles wasn't a problem.

After the run, we all went back to our place and Paula and Gwyn had brought a ton of food for us to re-carb with. It was really good -- and the best part was that they left some leftovers! Brian brought some Guinness (which he knows is my favourite) and I had an ample supply of Corona. We had the makings of a pretty good party, actually! My mother came over to join us and it was great to see her involved in the conversation -- which can get a bit difficult with a bunch of runners gabbing on about this race or that pace or how best to take 30 seconds off your half-marathon time!

Anyhow, it was a very good time and a great way for the group to send Gwyn and Paula to their half-marathon, and Brian and me to our marathon destiny in Corning!

No comments: