Hi Everyone,

Once again, great job on the long runs this weekend.

Nita, I like the consistency of your progression runs. Nice pace for 18 miles.

Ken, that's an excellent time for that half, and with a bathroom break to boot. I'll take that any day.

Kat, congratulations on your PR. That's a wonderful accomplishment given the challenging course. Well done!

I got going on my run this morning at about 4:45. The temp / humidity was 82 degrees / 30%. There was a very slight breeze out of the south that made things a bit more comfortable. Target pace for this 15 miles was PMP plus 20 seconds, which worked out to 8:50. My warm up mile split was 9:10, which was comparable to last week in Chicago. I spent the next couple miles trying to settle into a good rhythm. Miles 2 - 5 had splits ranging from 8:39 to 8:46. I had about a mile to go before getting back to my house, where my cooler with iced towels was waiting. But I felt pretty good and decided to put off the pit stop until the next lap. Miles 6 - 10 were pretty consistent. I had splits of 8:47, 8:48, 2 @ 8:49 and another at 8:50. By now the sun had come up, but it hadn't gotten blazing hot yet. And amazingly, the breeze was still pretty steady, which was a little unusual for right around sunrise. Anyway, with 5 miles to go, I felt okay. Mile 11 - 8:51. At that point, I was thinking that I probably wouldn't need a pit stop at all on this run. Yeah, I was sweating pretty good. But my drink in my Camelbak was still cool enough, and everything was feeling okay. Just as I was considering that, the clip for my drinking tube came partially unclipped from the strap. I hate it when that happens! If I didn't stop to fix it, the tube would wind up flapping all over the place. I could have just tucked it through the strap, but it would be a bit of a pain to get out and drink from. So I completed mile 12 (8:44) and that brought my back by the house. I quickly downed some water, threw an iced towel over my head, and fixed my clip. A couple minutes later, I was off again. Less than 3 miles to go, and I felt pretty good. Initially, I had entertained thoughts of going a couple extra miles, but I changed my mind and decided to stick with the 15 miles and run the last 3 miles as best I could. I made a mental note of my time at the 13.1 mile mark (1:55:20), which was actually only 19 seconds off my best race time. My last two splits were 8:48 and 8:13. Total time: 2:11:30. Average pace: 8:46. My only thought is that I am scheduled for 20 next week. Jumping up the extra 5 miles will be a bit challenging, but the target pace is a little slower and the forecast is for much cooler morning temperatures. Hopefully, that will be enough to get me through it. But I was very happy with this outcome. Just trying to knock down each workout one at a time at this point, and trust that my preparation will be good enough come race day. Have a great week everyone. Thanks for being a continued source of motivation. Talk to you soon.

Karl