18 Mile Long Run, with 9 Miles at Marathon Pace

Today we did our long run from Gibbons Park out to the "swaybacks" (hills) at Wickerson and Southdale Road, and then back. The Legendary John Ferguson wanted us to do a pace run for the 9 miles back to Gibbons Park. I was originally going to target 4:55 kilometres on the way back, but when I met up with Marc Labreche and Brian Kilborn at the halfway mark, they wanted to do 5 minute K's back, and I was fine with that.

It was a relatively hot day. When we started, it was about 18 degrees C. but when we finished it was around 25 C. But there was little, if any, humidity. On the way back, though, I stopped every chance I got -- the regular spots, plus Saturn Playground -- and I was having some GI issues (both during the run and afterwards) so I had to stop extra long to address those issues.

Here are my splits:

6:09
5:43
5:30
5:27
5:27
5:25
5:24
5:26
5:24
5:35
5:27
5:11
5:09
5:14

5:15
5:02
4:43
4:58
4:59
4:52
4:59
4:59
4:57
4:59
5:00
4:57
4:55
4:56
4:39 (pace for 0.3 km)

My average pace for the 'pace' part of the run was 4:57.48 per kilometre -- so pretty close to the 4:55 I was originally targeting. The heat was an issue, but not as bad as I thought it would be. On the other hand, I did get some extra-long breaks because of my GI issues which allowed me to cool down more than otherwise would be the case. GI issues or no GI issues, my legs felt strong at the end, which bodes well. My average pace for the entire run was 5:12, which also bodes well.