Hills, Hills, and More Hills
This morning the sun was out, and not a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful morning. The only catch was it was in the mid 20s with a 15 mph wind from the North. It was cold! Drove downtown to the Titan’s Stadium to run the 18-mile Nashville Striders marathon training run. (Aside: When I talked to Mom and Dad this afternoon, and told them about the run this morning, Dad wanted to know if it was a tail wind. I told him it depended on which way my tail was facing
We ran 2 miles from the stadium to the 10-mile point on the Country Music Marathon route. Then ran the next 16-miles following the marathon route. Since I had only run the half marathon in Nashville in the past, I thought it would be a good experience to run the second half of the course prior to race day.
The Country Music Marathon is known for it’s hills. In fact, the race organizers have tried over the years to “flatten” the course. Well, if they flatten it, I would have hated to run the original route. The second half is mostly up and down. Here is the elevation graph from my Forerunner.
They are not big hills but there are a number of them and the fact that they are in the second half of the marathon will be a factor.
Felt real good about the pace, 9:41 average. Looking at the splits, I started out too fast.
Overall, feel real good about the run and feel that I’m on track for race day. But the best part about today, I still got to take my regular Sunday afternoon nap! And boy did I sleep hard!
Total for the week: 47 (Kind of up there for what should have been a fall back week.)