Today I did something insanely stupid. I ran my long run fast. And I mean really fast. I have been running my long runs at a good solid 7:50 pace for most of my training with the exception of the 12 mile run that was last weekend which I ran at 7:13 pace. Well today I bettered that.

Weather was just too good today, it was the first time that I started in sub 60 weather since the spring. Weather was 59F at the start and it felt awesome! I forgot to put on my nip guard tape so I ended up running shirtless which is not a great look for me but neither is bleeding nipples.

I usually run my long runs with two other guys, both of them are faster than me so they tend to push the pace a bit but with the brutal summer heat we've been dealing with they were cutting it down to something reasonable. Well today I not only ran with these two guys but two other guys who were substantially faster than me. After the first two miles they finally broke off and ended up running 15 miles at sub 7 pace. I'm glad me and my other running buddy stayed back and ran the 20 at our own pace which was still blistering fast.

Unlike the last 20 mile run that I ran two weeks ago, when I missed my alarm, started at 7:30 and ended up running in 86 degree weather towards the end at 8 minute pace holding on for dear life and felling like I was dying at the end, today's run felt awesome.

I had a spring in my legs, the run felt easy and once I was done while I felt tired I still felt like I could have gone for more easily. We started with a 7:28 first mile then we ran the next 8 miles between 7:12 and 7:15. It felt truly amazing to be able to run that pace with such ease and be so consistent and steady with our pace. We were clocking some very steady splits and we were on a roll. We turned around at mile 9 because we had some water concerns, the training team only ran 15 miles so once we passed the 7 mile mark we were on our own as far as water went and there just wasn't much past that point. Once we turned around we started running even faster splits and we really kicked it hard for the last mile with a 6:58 split.

Overall we had 8 stops for a total of 19.5 minutes in the run, 6 water breaks, one shoelace break and one break at the 9 mile turnaround. These are the 19.5 minutes that are not included in my 2:23:49 time and will not be available to me during my real marathon. I will have to run through the water stops or even if I slow down I definitely can't afford to take 2 minute breaks on average.

Today's run gave me total confidence that I will be able to achieve my goal in 5 weeks in Tyler! It was a real boost in my confidence to realize just how much better I can run in cooler weather.

I'm running a 15K race on Monday and I'm really excited about it now. My legs are a bit tired right now but I'm sure after tomorrow's easy recovery run I will be good and ready to really rip it on Monday.

Splits:
00:07:28
00:07:14
00:07:12
00:07:13
00:07:12
00:07:15
00:07:15
00:07:12
00:07:15
00:07:03
00:07:03
00:07:09
00:07:04
00:07:11
00:07:07
00:07:10
00:07:14
00:07:17
00:07:10
00:06:58