Notes
Met a large group of folks in the parking lot across from Canal Park Stadium at 6am.
We headed south on main looped onto high and then caught Broadway to the marathon start line. From there we did the bridge, residential loop, and then down to the towpath off howard after crossing the bridge. From there, Bill and I did the towpath. The first 9-10 miles felt slow and a little labored (I chalked it up to fatigue from the time trial yesterday).
As we got to the bottom of Sand Run, Jim Barnett and a volunteer where heading out water and gatorade to runners. This is why Akron is so awesome!
Something got into me and I hammered up Sand Run. I was expecting to recover on Revere but was still fairly quick. Then handled the residential section off market without much difficulty. I punished Garman and then added a bit on by Stan Hywet before reversing course on Portage towards Market. Last year during the marathon miles 21-24 were my toughest. Today, they felt like a breeze. In fact, I just felt like I was cruising. Around Garman hill, Billy was lagging (after the race, he assured me that he stayed steady and that it was me that picked up the pace and pulled away). I stayed steady on Portage Path and then when I turned on Market, I decided to stretch my legs. This was about mile 17 of the run. Since it was mostly downhill from Market until the turn on Main, I just let gravity do its work. Mile 18 was 7'58" and mile 19 was 7'44". Then i made the turn on Main and carried on past the stadium to get my 20 miles in.
I only GU-ed twice. Once at 58' (about mile 6/6.5 and then again about 1'50" into the run (mile 14 or 15). If it was longer than 20, I might have taken another GU but I figured I let my body deal without it for the last 2 miles.
I hydrated well although I was getting more thirsty towards the end. If this was a marathon, I'd definitely want to drink more (part of this however was the weather getting hotter while we ran - I saw a temp of 78-degrees on the way back on Market by St. V-St.M.
I negative split this run by:
My splits were:
1) 9'06"
2) 8'37"
3) 8'45"
4) 8'52"
5) 8'52"
6) 8'50"
7) 8'30"
8) 8'52"
9) 8'51"
10) 8'17" (Start of Sand Run)
10 Mile Total Time: 1:28'32 Pace: 8'52"
11) 8'37" (Sand Run)
12) 8'26" (Sand Run)
13) 8'23"
14) 8'26"
15) 8'29"
16) 8'46"
17) 8'25"
18) 7'58"
19) 7'44"
20) 8'13"
10 mile Total Time: 1:23'27 Pace: 8'21"
Negative Split by 5'05"
I was sorer than I imagined after running twenty but had some left in the tank. This was by far my best effort at a 20-mile training run during my running career. And I was not even spent at the end.
7 more weeks until Chicago.