half marathon anyone?

Total Distance So Far: 162.7 miles

Saturday's group run this week was 14 miles long. We were meeting at Pier Park in St. Johns, a new route for the TNT team. Val and I carpooled there. The route, as it was explained to us, entailed 2 laps around a hilly trail-running trail in Pier Park, then out onto Lombard heading west, a left turn onto Columbia, and out to Kelly Point Park... all the way to the back parking lot there. Once in Kelly Point park we again run 2 laps around their pretty paved waterfront trails, and then head back the way we came to Pier Park. TNT had set up aid stations in the parking lots of each park.

It was roughly a 4 mile run between the parks, on roads which frankly lacked... a sidewalk, a shoulder, or any protection from the semi trucks barreling to and from the industrial area that the parks share the space out there with. It was a little uncomfortable, and coach joe admitted he didn't think the traffic was going to be as bad as it was, but he patrolled that stretch in his subaru outback constantly to make sure everyone was ok. It was reassuring to see him every once in a while drive by and wave at us.

Ever worried about my knee, I opted to try something new out. I loosely wrapped my left knee in an ace bandage to keep it warm. I figured it was having trouble when it cooled off too much. Sure enough, the wrap helped keep my knee toasty warm, and I had no problem with my knee freezing up on this run!! That was a relief! The weather was also not humid, and rather sunny on occasion. I was glad that alot of our run (the laps in the park at least) were under some beautiful old growth evergreens, nicely shaded. Oh, I should also mention we saw a decent number of people walking their dogs out at Kelly Point park. It seemed like a wonderful place to let Fido romp in the water.

Val and I made sure to take all the steep downhills walking (I learned my lesson on that 12 mile run), and eventually took some walk breaks on the way back to the first park. Val's toe was killing her, she suspects she might have broken it in one of our soccer games last week. Still we made it all 14 miles in approximately 3 hours.

I say approximately because I forgot to put on my Garmin initially, and snagged it out of Val's truck once we had finished the 2 laps in the first park, before we headed to the other park. The first 3.26 miles of data was effectively lost, and I have no clue how fast we ran it.

The stats I did capture say that we ran the last 10.74 miles in 2:21:41, giving us an average pace of 13:09 minute miles.

Assuming 3 hours for 14 miles though, that would give Val and I an average pace of 12:51 minute miles. That sounds about right actually. We were intentionally taking it slow (for the last 6 miles or so I don't think I could go any faster than I was actually)... but it worked! we made it!!

And, it occurs to me, that we had just ran our first 1/2 marathon distance too! Amazing!!

After the run, Val and I had to prepare for our BBQ fundraiser. We went to Farpost and picked up some donated items for her raffle. After that we went our seperate ways to shower and nap, and then met back up again at Val's house around 2:30pm to setup for the BBQ.

The fundraising BBQ (dubbed "BBQ to Save Lives"), went really well. It was a good time, we had a keg of Coors Light donated by Coors Brewing Company and a load of steak and chicken donated from Albertsons to grill. I even won some soccer gear in the raffle! We drew on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, hung around, and had a great time. The weather was perfect too.

Altogether a successful day!