Start time: 10/01/05, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 26 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 12:45min/mile

Ta da! The last long run of the season was today… aka the big 26-miler. Like any distance over 14 miles, we ran at a slower pace than our normal training pace, in order to keep from hurting yourself. We were supposed to hit a 13:00min/mile pace, but I think everyone was just too amped up (and it’s hard, to be honest, to slow yourself down two minutes per mile) and our average (not including very long water stops and several bathroom breaks for the group) was really closer to a 12:45min/mile.

We had a lot of people out on the trail, both in our group and out there in general. It’s always fun to see familiar faces: grok was coaching, jhim was running, and threegoldfish was water volunteering. All of them brought big smiles to my face every time I saw them; it makes such a huge difference out there.

Our group did a great job of staying together; we had one person stop after 6 miles because they were suffering from a cold and belatedly realized that discretion was the better part of valor, and two runners zoomed off into the distance with about three miles to go, but no real incidents were going on. Everyone was looking good and strong, and I was proud to be both leading the group as well as running with them.

Best of all? Despite being at a deliberately slower pace than what’s planned for race day, and with some hugely long stops for people to use the restrooms and such, both Julie and I beat our finishing time for the 2004 Marine Corps Marathon. (Generally speaking, the rule of thumb is that the practice marathon will be about an hour longer than your real marathon.) Quite honestly, barring disaster I think we’re going to have a tremendous race on the big day itself. 29 days and counting!