20 miles down the marathon course. Stared in Veyo at the gas station and ran to the park of the marathon finish. Actually had to turn the corner and run down to 700 S to hit 20 miles. Then .5 mile cool down back to the park. Started out with Stephen just slow and EZ hitting the first several miles at chatty pace. 7:30, 7:47, then some 6:50's. Then by mile 6,7 we started hitting 6:02, 6:03. Last 13 miles splits were: 6:13, 5:46, 5:38, 5:33, 6:00, 5:25, 5:18, 5:35, 5:29, 5:30, 5:26, 5:16, 5:22. A solid 20 miles in 2:00:48 or a 6:02 avg for the run. A pretty solid run for me. I didn't go into the day wanting to pound it out and kill it. Rather just keep it honest and let the legs flow on the downhill. It seems like I get less sore just letting it roll than I do running slower and trying to put the breaks on. Never went into "ATTACK" mode. Just milked it on the uphills and really stayed loose all the way... and only looked at my watch once. At mile 17 I glanced down and saw I had a chance to hit the 20 miles in 2 hours. So the last 3 miles through town was the only place I tried to push the pace. Very happy to get those miles rolling at the end of a long run and what's felt like a horribly long and hard week. Anyways very thankful for a solid run after a summer full of junk. It wasn't my fastest 20 miler down the course but it might have been my most laid back and smooth one. Actually enjoyed running for a change.
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