Marathon Pace Medium Run

Not going to lie, I was a bit nervous about today's run. Goal was to run between 14-16 miles and try the whole run at marathon pace. The exact distance would be based on how I was feeling during the run, and I had hoped for around 7:25/mile. I knew there was a good chance I'd be successful and do it comfortably, but if I couldn't pull this off, I think it would have stirred a lot of doubts in my head.

However, it went quite well. I went a touch over the maximum and was even well under marathon pace. The faster pace was not really intentional.  I told myself to slow down a few times in the beginning, but the splits kept hitting into the seven minutes and teens for seconds. I decided to just go with it.

The course I ran follows a rolling downhill to the Saco River. A few uphills in the first half, but nothing big and it's mostly going down. That was easy enough. But the real test would be on the way back, with the rolling uphill back home, including two big hills, the second one being the biggest.

Those uphills were both no problem. I rejoiced after climbing the second one, still hitting that mile in 7:15. Here's how it all went:

7:21
7:16
7:17
7:07
7:16
7:12
7:18
7:15
7:14
7:11
7:22
7:15
7:19
7:14
7:11
7:11

Great confidence booster. What's even better is that it all felt relatively comfortable. I never struggled and just cruised along. Good sign. But complacency kills progress, and there's still plenty of time to train and still some work to be done.

Worth noting I carried diluted lemonade in my water bottle (half Newman's Own all natural light lemonade, half water). That really hit the spot. Good sports drink, will definitely bring lemonade on runs more often.

Ran 16.1 miles @ 7:15/mile pace.
Paved roads.
Moderately hilly.
Upper 60s to lower 70s, sunny.
Saucony Kinvara, shorts, short sleeved shirt, cap, handheld water bottle (diluted lemonade).