Plan: 14 miles at MP + 45/mile
MP: 7:25 / mile, desired pace 8:10/mile
Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/251856386
This run will be the last long run of the year before marathon number 12 arrives and with it, the end of my Make-A-Wish challenge.
I wanted to really push myself on this run, although not too hard, to see whether I am really capable of sustaining a 4:20/km pace, which I will need to run at if I am to beat the 3:10 marathon time I would like to in order to end this year with a bang and obtain a good for age marathon time.
15 mile runs are not the easiest things to plan at the best of times, but I figured that I would try and incorporate the local park run event in so as to break up the pavement pounding and general monotony that comes with a solo long run.
Well, the best laid plans and all that....
Friday night turned into a bit of a lazy night with one too many drinks and so getting up on saturday morning was far too much of a task for me to really want to do, but I managed to make it up after a fashion and set about running the 3 miles or so to Bute Park where the local park run is held.
I turned up 5 minutes late, but true to form of any park run, they simply ushered me on with the best of luck and told me that I wasn't far behind the rest of the pack.
The run was enjoyable throughout and was one of the better runs that I had had this year. I managed to sustain a 7:42/mile pace on average and only one of the 1km splits came in at over 5:00mins.
Hopefully I have done enough this year to be able to carry me through this last part of the challenge and whilst I would love to get the good for age time, quite honestly I will be glad to finish this last marathon comfortably with no complications.
