Sunday, February 15, 2009

14 on a Sunday Morning

After Saturday's trail run, and not feeling that great, I wanted to get out and go for a nice long run. I picked one of the courses I ran while training for the Philadelphia Marathon.

It was a nice long 14 mile loop. I can break this run down into 2 half's.

The first 7, I felt pretty good. Legs were moving and I was making up for yesterday. The temp was in the 40's with a slight breeze, really nice running weather.
I ran past a red tailed Hawk, put I couldn't get a good shot of him.
I did get a nice shot of some Canadian Geese on a golf course.

These geese are taking over around here. It's hard to run in any local park, with running through geese poop.
The first seven miles seemed to go by pretty quickly, and brought back good memories of last summer/fall and training for Philly.

The 2nd 7, well, that's when the legs started to ache, and my bad planning of no water hurt me. I did pack a GU, and took that around the 7th mile.
As I hit Mercer County Park, I was hoping the bathrooms would be open, but they were closed.

As I ran into the woods, I got a nice shot of a pair of geese enjoy a swim.

The wind was a lot stronger at the park, especially coming off the lake. I think that had something to do with the legs.

As I left the park, and started on the last 2 miles, I wanted to make sure I picked up the pace for the last mile. It was hard, as this was the longest run I have done since Nov. I did check the Garmin, and I was at 1:55 at the 13.1, 1/2 marathon mark. I was really happy with that.
I picked up the pace the best I could for the last mile, and finished at 2:02:42.

Oh, and I got home just in time to watch the FLYERS put a beating on the Rangers. I will say, most of the beating was self inflicted. The Rangers are in a free fall.

14 miles (2:02:42 8:45 avg.)

Mile / Time

1 8:34
2 8:35
3 8:46
4 8:43
5 8:48
6 8:34
7 8:39
8 8:46
9 8:43
10 8:49
11 8:57
12 8:57
13 9:08
14 8:37

12 comments:

Vava said...

Great run! And the Canadian Geese situation is out of control. Didn't they take them off the endangered list a while back and even allowed hunting again? If not, "they" should think about it...

And you are so right about the Rangers. Sorry BeachRunner, but the Rangers are in trouble. At least the Leafs were supposed to suck, and have lived up to that billing. Amazing what they did to the Penguins last night, another team in freefall with a coach that (I just heard) just got the can.

Philly is looking good, though I wonder about their goaltending - what else is new...

Unknown said...

Nice run! It looks like we are pretty close to the same speed. I did a 14 today also. Are splits are pretty similar.

Progman2000 said...

Nice splits - GU with no water, yuck. Bet you were tasting that thing for the next 5 miles.

Denise said...

Great run! I hate geese poop. The trail I run has horse poop. At least that's big enough to run around and not through...

Marcy said...

Canadian Geese are the devil! HAHA Seriously though, they are :P Ever have one hiss at you?

Laurel said...

Nice run! Glad the legs were feeling ok.

Yeah, the geese around here are pretty bad too. There are a few patches that are nothing but nasty goose poop.

BommaMama said...

Sounds like a really nice pace Bill - great job! You must have felt good when all was said and done. I made it through a 12 miler Sunday morning, and I agree it was nice running weather. I have fallen victim to the locked bathrooms in MCP on a long run once. That's torture! On this run I fell victim to the turned off water fountains in Vet Park (no water with me)! I knew it was a fat chance but I tried them anyway - four of them. ARGH!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

just stumbled across your blog... sounds like an amazing run, minus the geese poop!

Morrissey said...

nice splits flyers!

sRod said...

Watch out for those geese--they're dangerous!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Next time if you get to the park and the bathrooms aren't open, just poop outside and blame it on the geese. Just say it was one particularly large goose named "Tiny".

It's what I'd do.

Because I'm a class act.

sneakersister said...

You are totally kicking butt lately on your runs!

What are your racing plans for 2009?