Running good and long

Last weekend, I ran 16 miles- my longest run of marathon training so far this cycle! I delayed my long run by one day because I had a tight hamstring and my legs were a little sore from working out and hiking. I'm SO glad I did, because I had an awesome run for once! I feel like a lot of my runs this summer have been what I like to call a "slog-fest", where I'm just slogging through the miles until I get to the end. I've also had more bathroom issues than ever before, and I hate to have to stop and find a porta-potty during a run.

I was kind of dreading this 16 miler, so it was a pleasant surprise to have a good run!! My mom and I drove to a paved bike path. My mom ran a 5k while I started out on my long run, then she biked to meet me to deliver fresh Gatorade and gummies at mile 9. For the remaining 7 miles, my mom biked behind me while I ran. She said my pace actually wasn't bad for casual biking. :)

My goal was to start out slow and conserve energy to maintain a decent pace the whole way. Halfway through, my goal become to negative split and finish faster than I started. I was really pushing the last 3 miles to have a strong, solid finish. I ended up running the last mile in 9:10, which was my fastest out of all 16 miles, and almost a whole minute faster than my starting pace!

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 2:35:38.4 16.03 9:42 1 10:06.8 1.00 10:07 2 10:02.7 1.00 10:03 3 9:57.6 1.00 9:58 4 9:54.1 1.00 9:54 5 9:48.0 1.00 9:48 6 9:32.4 1.00 9:33 7 9:41.8 1.00 9:42 8 9:21.8 1.00 9:22 9 9:22.5 1.00 9:22 10 9:39.6 1.00 9:39 11 9:56.2 1.00 9:56 12 9:44.2 1.00 9:44 13 9:38.9 1.00 9:39 14 9:45.5 1.00 9:46 15 9:39.3 1.00 9:39 16 9:10.1 1.00 9:10 17 :16.8 0.03 8:06

Negative split!

First half: 1:18:21 (9:47 pace)           Second half: 1:16:53 (9:37 pace)

Finished much faster than I started:

First 5 miles: 49:47 (9:57 pace)         Last 5 miles: 47:56 (9:35 pace)

Of course this was on a flat bike path, but I was still excited to FINALLY have a good long run!