Long run. Average pace: 9:51.
Outside temp: 37°F
I ran on the same trail that I ran 2 weeks ago with some friends who are training for the Honolulu Marathon. But this time I ran from the park/rec center instead of from his parents' house. I suspected that I might see them on the trail because I knew that they were planning to run 21 miles today on the same trail. It's a very popular trail because it is very long and miraculously rural in the middle of the Denver metro area. There are even horses boarded at some points along the trail. It's not a loop, so you have to run it out and back. I started out going north and headed towards my friend's parents' house. My friends started at his parents' house and went south and then we both turned around and changed directions at some point, and so I passed them twice. The first time they didn't recognize me. I recognized them because I was kind of expecting them and because the two of them with their dog are harder to miss. The second time I talked with them briefly as we passed.
There were a lot of runners on the trail today. And I saw a lot of runners in the rec center parking lot where I parked. It's a popular place to start from. I had a nice talk with a guy when I was stretching at the end of my run. He was impressed that 6 months before my first marathon I'm able to run 14 miles.
I kept a fairly steady pace throughout the run, but then decided to try to push it to the fastest pace that I could maintain over the last mile. I ran the last mile in 9:01. I can run faster than that on shorter runs, but I thought that was pretty good after being tired from having just run 13 miles.
I'll probably continue to use that trail for long runs because it is very well suited to them. I went north from the rec center today. I'll probably go south from the rec center next Saturday and explore that part of the trail. | 