Going long

With the Hospital Hill half marathon coming up in a couple of weeks, I wanted to challenge my stamina a little bit, so I decided to do up to 15 miles. I chose a flat course on Highway 9 in Parkville. The idea was to run the levee trail and then head down to English Landing Park. Turned out the levee trail was closed - no idea why - so I could only do .3 mile there. I did that loop twice because a train cut off my exit, then headed north to Horizons Parkway, which is a nice out and back that adds up to about 3 miles. When I got there a sign announced the road would be closed by 7 a.m., but it was just 6:25, so I had plenty of time.
By the time I got back to my car at the levee trail head, I had gone a little over 8 miles and was feeling very good and knew I could do 15. It was starting to warm up though, and I kind of knew I wouldn't feel so good in 4 or 5 miles if I didn't keep the pace down and hydrate.
After a short break for a drink and to load up my fuel belt, I headed down to English Landing. The sun was still low in the sky and behind trees, so there were good stretches where I was in the shade. That was helpful.
As it turned out, I felt good enough to complete the whole 15, doing it at a 9:27 pace. That includes walking for 40 seconds between miles. The run gave me just short of 36 miles for the week. I will ease off a bit next week and then taper one week for Hospital Hill. Despite the difficulty of the course, HH is where I set my half marathon PR. That was in 2009 when I posted a 1:49:05. My training has gone real well this year, so there's a chance I could come close to that this year. I'll probably shoot shoot for it, but it really all depends on what kind of weather we have. HH is notorious for heat and humidity, and if that's what we get that day, there will be no PR for me. -- Rob