Go (New) West, Young Man!
My longest run of the current marathon cycle—and the wettest! This was the ‘big event’ of the clinic, and we were joined by runners from the Broadway Running Room as well as the VanRun club. Some of us slower runners started an hour early at 7:45 am, so we could all meet up at about the same time in New West.
Go (New) West, Young Man! 34.03 km in 03:34 | 06:17 pace
It was an epic long run, despite—because of?—the torrential downpour, and getting lost along the route. My goal was to run by heart rate for the first 23(ish) km and then race pace for the lat 8-10 km, and I (pretty much) followed the plan.
I ran with my regular group for the bulk of the run. They really have become my ‘running family’. We ran up an epic hill, got lost is a golf course, and survived the sky opened\ing up on us! At 25 km, just when I thought I wasn’t going to get my race pace segment in (for fear of separating from the group and getting lost (again), a pack of faster runners caught up with us. I joined them for the last 8 km. While they were running close to 5 min/km pace—significantly faster than my 5:40 race pace—I managed to keep up and finish strong. This gives me the confidence that a sub 4 hour marathon is definitely within my reach!
After the run, we invaded the Paddlewheeler, a New West pub for a post race meal, and many beers before heading back to Vancouver for a second round of drinks! All in all a memorable day!
