Sunday, August 17, 2008

14 Miles on a Sunday Morning

Well, with my recovery week over, it's back to loooong runs on Sunday's.
For the next 3 Sundays, I will be setting new longest run records. Today was a 14 miler, followed by next Sunday's 16, and 8/31's 18 miler!
I got up at about 6:15, and was out the door a little after 6:30. Weather was perfect, thermometer read 56.9. I decided to run an out and back , down Edinburgh / Old Trenton Rd, towards Cranbury, and back.
At about the 2 mile mark, I had my 1st encounter with a dog. The part of Edinburgh Rd. I was on, just past the entrance to Mercer County Community College, it was still a four lane road. Well don't you know, a house across the street from me had a dog out on their front lawn, and it sees me, and starts barking. I thought it was tied up, but next thing I know, it's coming across the street, and standing in the middle of the road, verbally letting me have it. Well, I just froze in my tracks, and let the dog bark. I told it to go home a few times, and it finally did.
For those who don't know the area I run in, Edinburgh Rd. is a very high traffic road, and this dog was really lucky it wasn't quite 7:00am. If it was any later, his attempt to cross the road, could have been a disaster. If you check out my splits, you can see mile 2 was just a bit slower, because of my 4 legged cheerleader.
The rest of the run was pretty uneventful. I did pass a bunch of roadkill, check out this list of animal roadkill:
red fox, possum, birds, garden snake.
I ran to U2 live from Paris, for a 1987 concert on Itunes. What a great concert. It really helped me for the 1/2 half of my run. If you are a fan of U2. I highly recommend it.
I was surprised at how good I felt during the entire run. I guess the week of easy mileage was good for the body.
My split at 13.2 was 2:04:00, which would put a estimated finish at 4:08:00. I know it's way to early to think about time, but if I can run like I did today, I think I have a shot at that type of a finish.
The rest of the week is back to the 6,8,6 Tuesday -Thursday, with a 5 miler on Saturday.

14.01 miles (2:11:56)

Lap/Mile
1 9:28
2 10:01 (damn dog!)
3 9:14
4 9:29
5 9:30
6 9:30
7 9:32
8 9:31
9 9:24
10 9:23
11 9:19
12 9:16
13 9:11
14 8:58
.01 :04

6 comments:

BeachRunner said...

Awesome job. You and my wife both ran a 14 miler yesterday morning. I stayed home with the kids.

Progman2000 said...

Roadkill! Come on man, take the camera phone with you next time.

Are you doing the Philly Distance run in September?

FLYERS26 said...

Prog, I don't have the camera phone. I'm lucky my company just sprang for a nextel/blackberry, so I can get emails!
And yea, I will be in for the PDR.
I haven't signed up yet, but I will be doing that.

Unknown said...

Sounds like you had a terrific four legged cheerleader. It must been a chiachiua ! It looks like you are doing nicely with your mileage buildup.

The area where you have ran sounds quite familiar. I used to live in Plainsboro.

Erin Leigh said...

Great job. That sucks about the dog. Need to get yourself some dog mace.

hurley said...

Ya know, stumbling across a loose dog during a run is a lot like your mother calling and leaving a message on your answering machine while you're having sex. Sure, you can try to keep going but damn it's hard to ignore! ;) Kudos to you for perservering and getting the miles done!!!