i might be wrong

I did my 20 mile run on Saturday, but not the one I blogged about last week. A friend told me about an organized run by Nike that took place on Saturday. They were running the last 10 miles of the NYC Marathon. The run turned out to be the last 8.35 miles of the marathon because NYC Marathoners are tapering and shouldn't run more than 8 or 10 miles the week before the race. I was happy to do my first 8+ miles with them. They split us into pace groups and off we went. We took the subway up to 103rd and Lex and ran the route from there. Over to the Willis Avenue bridge, into the Bronx for a mile and over to the Madison Avenue Bridge back into Manhattan. I ran with the slowest group and had to keep reminding myself that this was a training run, not the race. No need to take off at break-neck speed. I maintained this slow pace all the way until we ended at the marathon finish line — Central Park across from Tavern on the Green. I said my good-byes and thanked the pacers and off I went to back home to Brooklyn. I hit the 20 mile mark 2 blocks away from my house. Did I bother to run the remaining 2 blocks. Nah. I was hurting pretty badly. My time was 3:42:25. That was 11:05 pace. I am looking at a 4:42 finish for the marathon based on this training run. I'm trying not to get hung up on the slow time. This will be my first marathon, but the competitor in me wants to knock about 42 minutes off that time. Reality says that's not likely to happen.

Saturday was rainy and cold, but it actually didn't bother me. I was pumped to run all the way back home and do my 20 miles. Cardio-wise, I was fine. My lungs felt good. I could breathe. I wasn't very out of breath. I wanted to run faster. My legs, however, had something else in mind. You see, they didn't want to pick up the pace. They wouldn't let me run faster than 11 minute pace for very long. I was mad at my legs for awhile, but in hindsight, my legs were smart. You see, my brain kept saying "Run Faster" but my brain is a fool. That would have been dumb. It's a training run, remember. I have to be smart about the race.

Come marathon day, I hope to take the advice in this New York Times article and run the race in negative splits. That means I'll run the first half of the race slightly slower than the second half. I hope my legs will be strong enough to pick it up by mile 13 or 14 and pick it up even more at mile 20. I keep remembering a phrase I saw on a T-shirt. "I ran my fastest 10k 20 miles into a marathon". I'd like to be able to say that.