Start time: 8/8/09, 6:00am
Location: National Mall, Hains Point, Mount Vernon Trail, Memorial Bridge
Distance: 16 miles
Average pace: 10:00min/mile
Total Miles For August: 41 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 500 miles

Wow, I couldn’t have timed that better if I tried. 500 miles down for this year, huzzah!

Oh, the run? It actually went really well. For the first seven miles, we just used the old AIDS Marathon route from Waterfront up to the Pegasus Bridge and then back, even running into an old AIDS Marathon coach (Charlie) who is now helping people over at Team in Training. (Psst. Don’t block the sidewalks with your group meetings. Thanks!) The idea was that this way Ben and Stephanie would run 7 miles with us, plus we could refill our water at the cars, but as it turned out Ben and Stephanie turned around a little early and just did 6 miles. Oh well!

After that, we ran over and around Hains Point, then across the 14th Street Bridge and up the Mount Vernon Trail to Memorial Bridge, at which point we hoofed it down Independence Ave and Maine Ave back to our starting point. I have to say, we all did really consistently. Dave and I both finished really strong, and Paul and Aaron were right behind us for the past few miles; Aaron was still a little sore from a bad run earlier, but he made the most of it and really toughed through the run.

Considering last week’s 12-miler made me feel like I’d face-planted the last two miles, it was nice to end up feeling good here. And of course, it’s hard to not note that this week had walk breaks every mile (supposedly just a minute, but sometimes there were requests to stretch them out a wee bit) this week while not last week. I’m thinking I may very well just use the “walk for a minute every mile marker” strategy for NYC. I felt strong and consistent enough (I could’ve knocked the last few out faster if I’d wanted) that I think it may very well help on marathon day itself. We’ll see. Having more of just a “finish strong” goal instead of a time goal does make a big difference, mentally.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3078295