Monday, September 27, 2010

Trail Run - 9/26/10 - 10 miles 02:00

Best group run EVER.  Seriously, this was epic.  It was an all-morning event, starting with a group photo taken in front of the Department of the Interior at 19th and Constitution in DC.  From there we took off and ran I don't even know where, here's the map but I sure couldn't find the route again if I tried:

Much of this is part of the Marine Corps Marathon route so I'm really glad I got a chance to run it with the group.  I ran with Hengameh only, in between the 12:00 and 12:30 pace groups and we had a great run.  We felt good, we felt fast, we ran negative splits!  10 miles in exactly 2 hours for an average pace of exactly 12 minutes.  Nice!

Though we took off in our pace groups the plan was for everyone to meet around mile 7.5, we felt bad that folks from the 9 minute group had to hang around and wait for us but sure enough they were all there when we arrived, cheering us on as we ran to the meeting spot.  When everyone had gathered all of the coaches save for Andy and Lori took off ahead of us.  We stayed back and learned that we would be running, pretty much as one big group, the last .2 miles of the marathon course up to the Iwo Jima memorial (that's a tear-jerker in and of itself).  And we did.  As we ran up the little hill the coaches lined the path, cheered us on and gave us high-fives.  Remember this feeling, they said, because it'll be even more amazing on marathon day.

We then ran back to the Department of Interior where we enjoyed a brunch of veggies, bagels, cookies, peanut butter and orange juice (or mimosas for those boozehounds among us).  We munched while listening to Andy and Lori give us pre-, during- and post-race tips they've learned from years of racing.  I think they both got choked up at points, I know I did.  We're so close we're really starting to feel like we WILL do this.

Before we left we received our singlets.  Every year the group suggests different mottoes or phrases for the back and the coaches pick one:

I had the courage, now I just have to make sure I have the determination! 

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