Indeed, it was a lovely autumn day today. The big bad weather moved away on Friday night and left us with two gloriously clear sunny but mild days, albeit a little windy.
I ran to Yoyogi park from home and ran a reverse lap until I met Satohi. We did a lap and half together before coming back to the start at 9:00. We met Gareth on his bike as we were coming back to the meeting place. Gareth looked up and said, "Either there is a very big new guy up there talking to Vinnie or that's Pete." I then remembered that Pete was indeed due back in town this weekend visiting from Portland, Maine. After a short but happy reunion Pete got us started once again and we continued on our merry way.
I ran reasonably relaxed 5:30 to 5:50 pace, 'cos that's what you do on long runs, up until 21 km. The next 5 km I stepped up to 5:15 pace and was soon running alone, then 7.5 km at 5:00 pace, and a final 2 km at 4:40. I felt fairly rooted at the end and it was definitely good to finish. While I was happy to finish the run as strongly as that, it still felt a long way from runnning 25 seconds faster for a whole marathon.
Colin of the broken collar bone came for a social visit. It was a happy convergence of circumstances because he didn't know Pete would be here. So then we (Pete, his wife Laura, Colin, Satohi, Rie and li'l ol' me) went for lunch. It was like old times. Great food, delicious red wine, great company!
Even though I ate a heap (we went to a buffet!), I was on food duty tonight for myself and eldest son Tatsuya, so almost as soon as I got home I started to work on making something I have intended to do for a while: gnocchi. That was a bit of a long drawn out experience, but it went pretty well in the end.
Well, that will do for reporting on my Sunday. Congratulations to my good friend Nicola, who ran Melbourne Marathon today. Email just in as I was typing this and she recorded a 3:28 . Her third best time and definitely a strong performance on that course. Well done Nic!!
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3 comments:
Wow thats a great long run. To be running so strong at the end is awesome stuff Stephen! You know better than to wonder how you can run faster than that pace....cmon.
With taper and carbo loading you will be on fire and flying at your planned marathon pace no probs.
What's the countdown up to now? a few weeks?
Clairie beat me to it! Ditto what she said ;-)
What, no beer!
3:28 is a good run from your friend. I heard a Japanese 'novice' won the race.
Clairie is just being her enthusiastic self - you're running like a dog ;)
Actually, with day to day tiredness it is hard to tell without testing - no 5 or 10k races before the marathon?
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