The First Long Run

The temperature was rather pleasant, the wind a little strong, and the sky was of a partly cloudy disposition.  Therefore, it seemed like a good idea to knock out a long run.  I was only shooting for 8 miles, but Erin wanted longer.  Our baby sitter time was also running short, so we compromised.

We'll call this one the "Aldi Run" - since it goes to the Aldi at 67th and Lackman.  Our first big run of the year - very windy, but a good mix of hills and flat running.  Best of all, I didn't die.

We finally ran to the South and West!  In and around Shawnee Mission Parkway is anything but scenic, but once you get past it your into some new terrain - so that was nice.  Erin and I ran a very similar route to this when we were training for our half ironman way back when.  At that time, we ran off of the Turkey Creek trails around 71st st and wound our way over to 67th and Lackman.  That made for a long, 12 mile day.  I think we'll be pulling off those types of runs shortly.

Our pace was a little faster than I wanted to go.  Actually, I think the pace breakdown would put us at a 1:59 half-marathon time! We actually started off fairly reasonably (shooting for about a 9:45ish pace), but as we realized we were passing our available babysitter time window, we picked up the pace.  I suspect our closing 2 miles were pushing a low 8 minute mile pace. Gotta do what you gotta do though.  I think we could have leveled out and finished a half-marathon run in about that 2 hour window, so that's pretty encouraging!  About the wind - we had a strong WNW wind.  The run out to the West was a little rough at times, but what goes around comes around.  Having a sail on the way home would have made for an excellent finish.

Well, that's it for now.  I delayed mentioning this, but I had NO pain in my leg!  The stretching and strengthening exercises are working!  I finally feel like this marathon could happen.  I'm also fairly confident that I could fake a half-marathon if I had to (you know, zombies and such).  I think we're going to look for a late April / early May run to help us get mentally prepared (and replace our long run that week).  Next week, I think we'll step up to something around 10-12 miles - possibly the full Irish Run.  Stay Tuned!

D

Running Total:
March:  14.42
2012:  77.70