ShoreTurtle – Running in and around New Jersey

Laughable

Today was a beautiful Fall day. After a day full of errands, I left the house for my last double digit long run before the Harrisburg marathon. I ran an out and back through Mercer County Park–13 miles total. The park path was active. There were walkers, runners, cyclists and some skaters. Midway through my run, I started to get self-conscious. For some reason, everyone on the path was smiling or laughing as I passed. I looked myself over, but I didn’t see anything embarrassing or funny. I concluded that maybe there was something wrong with them.

I did my best to run each mile at marathon pace. Overall, I ran the 13 miles a couple of minutes faster than I intended. I think that will be one of my challenges during the marathon. I really want to avoid starting out too quickly and fading at the end. I would much rather start close to goal pace and finish stronger. We’ll see.

Like

Unlike

Weekly rundown

Until today, I have not run all week.

After suffering for a couple of days, I went to the doctor, but he was not convinced that I had a sinus infection. When my symptoms did not clear up several days later, he capitulated and prescribed some antibiotics yesterday.

This morning I went for what was supposed to be a 5 mile tempo run. The rain, wind and my general fatigue changed the tempo run into a speed work out. I ran 5 miles at tempo pace, but I peppered the run with short breaks to catch my breath and to cool off. Despite the rain, I was overheated. The current temperature is 71 degrees. Say what?

I have a short long run (13 miles) scheduled tomorrow. I’m hoping to run it at marathon pace. 15 days until the Harrisburg marathon. Tomorrow, I will start obsessing over the Accuweather 15 day forecast.

Like

Unlike

Pace Products

I posted a poll asking how you keep track of your pace during the marathon. Early returns suggest that the majority of readers use their watch.

I’ve used the Garmin virtual partner with success during training runs, but I’m reluctant to rely totally on it during the Harrisburg marathon in a couple of weeks. My last two races have been great despite the fact that I abandoned the virtual partner after the mile splits and total distance were off. I will most likely set my watch to auto-lap and manually hit the lap at each mile marker if I remember. During my two previous marathons, I used that approach and focused on each mile split rather than my overall time.

Since I’m focusing on specific race goal, I’ve been thinking about a pace band. There are several web sites that allow you to make your own pace band and tape it to your wrist. I don’t mind arts & craft projects, but I was wondering if there was something better.

So far I have found two alternatives:

The PaceTat miles, which is a cool looking tattoo.

The Marathon pace band, which is a large easy-to-read moisture wicking wristband.

The PaceTat is less expensive, but the marathon pace band is reusable if I fail to meet my goal this time.

On the subject of goals, I’m not sure if I should wear a tattoo/pace band/craft project with my marathon goal (3:40:00), my fall-back goal (3:45:00) or my “everything went wrong, but I’m happy to finish goal” (anything less than my current PR of 3:53:02). I’m tempted to use my a-list goal time, though I would hate to see my time slipping away. Decisions, decisions…

Like

Unlike