Long Run – Running all the Way to 19 Miles - Oct

After having run 18 miles last week, I was looking forward to doing a 19 this weekend. I reached the Mockingbird station, where Dallas Running Club full marathon pace group gathers, at 6:00 am. It was a cold morning and my fingers were still numb and I was shivering a little. Today I decided to run with the 9:30 min/mile pace group since I wanted to see if I could keep running for the entire stretch of 19 miles. Last week, I was able to keep the 9 min/mile pace at a high heart rate for about 12 miles and for the last 6, I lost momentum and ended up doing 10 min/mile. We started running at 6:10 am. At first, I felt that the pace was slow since I had gotten used to the 9 min/mile but as is the usual case with me, the first mile was tough. It was difficult to see anything in the dark. Three of four runners from the group, including me, started to run faster and a couple of us slowly joined the 9 min/mile pace group. We ran with this group and finished about 4.5 miles in 40 minutes. We took a 2 min water break here. I was pretty warmed up by this time although the hands were still numb.

After taking the break, it again felt a little cold but we picked up pace as we reached the Whiterock lake. We did a 9 mile loop around the lake with about 2 breaks. We managed to finish 13 miles in just under 2 hours. This is usually the distance when I start to break and start to do the walk for a minute and run for some time. Added to that was the fact that the next 5 miles were going to be hills ! We started to run on the road running through the hills. Although we slowed down a bit (9:15 min/mile), we were still doing pretty well as we took a break only after 2.5 miles. And I was happy that I was still able to run. We took a break at 17 mile mark. I had my last pack of Gu gel and I was still feeling energetic. We just ran the last 2 miles without any break with a couple of us spring for the last quarter mile.

I was happy to have run all the 19 miles although we took 6 or 7 water breaks of 2 min each. This one's to my brother whose been my first donor and whose birthday happens to be on 19^th ! Here are the stat's from the GPS (note that this doesn't include the water break's time). Since this was an easy pace and I didn't really push myself at any point, it is reflected in the average heart rate below.

Activity	Type	Activity	Type	Miles	Time (HH:MM:SS)		Avg. Pace (min/Mile)		Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
Morning	Morning	Evening	Evening
Running	Long Run	Strength	Gym - Back & Biceps	19:01	2:55:53		9:15		6.5	2463	150