Training Run No. 5

Because I was on the West Coast last weekend, I missed the 11-mile Minneapolis Marathon training group run. But, I did join them for their 12-mile training run this morning, which I added miles on to because of my nonexistent long run last week.

I didn't bring my camera (again), and I didn't run into Benny (thank god), so I had a long, peaceful run along the West and East Mississippi Parkways, Desnoyer Park, and Ford Parkway in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. I had plenty of time to zone out and think about nothing -- except that I wished I had done my long run in San Francisco because I started to feel like I was hurting. Three weeks with a max of 7.65 miles makes the half marathon distance suddenly painful.
I chatted briefly with two runners at Mile 2. I noticed one man, Marius, was wearing a coveted singlet that someday I would like to own for myself. I asked him about his experience attaining his prized piece of clothing, and another lady, Ana, chimed in as well. Marius was a younger man -- probably close to my age -- and he ran his 46th marathon last weekend. Ana is coming up on her 20th marathon and is anxiously waiting to find out if she made it into the New York City marathon. I wonder if marathoning will ever take over my life as it seems to have for them. They both made it sound like a marathon is nothing -- that it's just a long training run with maybe another day or two of recovery. I wish I could view 26.2 miles in the same light. For now, it still sounds so daunting.

The training group ran duplicate loops this morning to increase mileage, and we therefore didn't cover any new course territory. I believe we ran Miles 7.5-11.5, then, because it's an out and back, 20.5-24.5. The trees are budding -- but largely bare -- and this will be beautifully blanketed once it's fully bloomed.
Spring was in full force this morning as I saw three sculling teams practicing on the Mississippi, eight packs of cyclists in their sexy spandex gear, and at least three separate running groups.

Happy Easter!

13.2mi splits (1h 59m 52s)
1: 8:45
2: 9:22
3: 9:09
4: 9:08
5: 9:10
6: 9:04
7: 9:11
8: 8:52
9: 8:59
10: 9:11
11: 9:12
12: 9:07
13: 8:52
.2: 1:41
Air Temp: 50F