Last Long Run

This past Sunday the Melrose Running Club had their last long run of the season.

The long route was 12.5 miles and the short route was 7.1 miles. The long route took us over the Fellsway Hills twice! On the way out I charged up the hill and practiced running on my forefoot. There were four hills with elevation changes of 100 to 200 feet each. The Fellsway hills on the way out were about a 150 foot climb over a mile or so.

Practice run

I wanted to use this last long run to test my Boston strategy. I carried a bottle of Gatorade with me that I picked up at a BAA Runner’s Clinic. It’s the same formula they will have on the course so I thought it would be a good idea to give it a try on a long run. The taste was fine and my stomach did not have any issues.

The bottle has a twist top which makes it easy to drink from while running, without worrying about dropping the cap. One twist, squeeze the bottle and your are done.

During The Marathon, I plan to avoid the first few water stops by using the bottle instead. The water stops start at mile 2 and are then at every mile. At mile two the crowd will be thinning out a little bit but there is usually congestion at the stops until well into the race.

Later in the race I’ll probably walk the water stops. I still had drink in my bottle at the end of Sunday’s run, so I should be able to get to Natick before I need to grab a cup and walk. At that point in the race I’ll still be able to walk and not worry too much about my legs tightening up.

I also wore the singlet I plan to wear for the marathon. It was in the 40’s Sunday morning but I did not wear an Under Armor top. It was a little chilly starting out but by mile one I could feel the sweat under my arms. I used TwoToms body glide in my usual problem spots and didn’t have any problems. I’m fairly confident that I can run 26.2 miles in this top without any issues. If the weather looks bad for Marathon Monday I know I can add the Under Armor shirt before the bag drop on the Boston Common.

I also wore my Amphipod belt fully loaded with various gels. I took my phone out of the Otter Box case and it took up much less space in my belt. I forgot how thin the phone is without the case. I’ll probably put it in a sandwich bag for The Marathon just to give it some water protection. They are so fragile and expensive, it made me a little nervous to have it out of the “protective” case.

At Marathon Sports on Saturday I picked up a clip on pouch from Amphipod. It’s about 7×4″ and has a firm clip. I loaded it with four gels and clipped it to my belt. It was okay, but it seemed more secure clipped to my waist band. It bounced around some but nothing intolerable.

I turned the 12.5 mile run into a 13.06 mile run: almost a half. My pace was 8:57 and my time was 1:56. I’d like to be closer to 1:50 at the half-way mark in Wellesley on Marathon Monday. That will give me 10 minutes to play with and still hit my goal of a 4 hour Boston Marathon.

On the glide path

Now that the last long run is over, it’s all down hill until Newton! I’ll run 3-4 miles a couple of times next week and skip the Tuesday night club run – no more running in the dark. It’s time to focus on diet and keeping the fiber content low.

When I pick up my BAA drop bag on Friday I’ll know what I can bring. The bag looks pretty small in the photos, so I’ll be packing very light. Maybe a t-shirt and change of socks.

Are you ready? Bags all packed?

Run well my friends!

Andy

© anagelin 2014