Good long run to Port Stanley - 36.8 km (23 miles)

I had a really good long run today. The Legendary John Ferguson's marathon training group had a light day today because most of them are going in the Corning Marathon next weekend. So Janice and Nancy organized our own run to Port Stanley from London and there were about 30 runners who took part.

I started at what was supposed to be the Saturn Saab on Wharncliffe Road -- but it is now a Saab/Suzuki -- so it took us a while to figure out if we were at the right place. In any event, I started my run 9 minutes early at 7:44 am and the plan was to run the first 24 kilometres at 'long run pace' (5:11/k, 8:20/mile) and then do the last 8 miles or so at race pace (4:52/k, 7:50/mile).

The weather was excellent. No wind to speak of, and the temperature when we stated was around 8 degrees C. When we finished, I'm guessing it was around 14 degrees C and the sun was shining, which made it feel warmer than that. But all in all, pretty good running conditions.

Here are my kilometre splits:

5:07
5:07
5:06
5:04
5:08
5:08
5:09
5:10
5:10
5:02
5:06
5:04
5:07
5:05
5:08
5:06
5:07
5:10
5:11
5:10
4:55
5:05
5:06
5:15
4:52
4:51
4:50
4:51
4:51
4:47
4:55
4:51
4:45
4:33
4:45
4:51
4:32

My average time for the run was 5:00 per kilometre. There were 7 water stops along the route, and I stopped at them all for an average of 1:12 -- but it was a bit longer at the last two stops when I was working harder (and they had fruit!).

My plan was to run faster down the hills and slightly slower than target pace up the hills -- which is why you see the 5:15 and 4:55 paces in the list -- the previous kilometres more than made up for the slowness in those laps.

Anyhow, tacking on another 3.2 would not have been a problem today. My left ankle was talking to me just about the whole way (but is fine now as I'm typing this post) and both calf muscles were screaming at me near the end -- but nothing I couldn't handle.

All in all, a good run!