So Why Did I Do A 21.53 Mile Long-Run Last Weekend?

Since I'm a big fan of politics I thought I'd do something that politicians do all the time - answer a question that wasn't asked. But it must seem odd to the four or five people who read my blog that just a week after a 1/2 marathon, and marathon season essentially over locally, why would I be doing a 21.53 long-run last weekend, and at an aggressive pace?

Let me answer that in a roundabout way. My buddy Brian King is as good a runner as I've ever been or will be. His 5K PR is an 18:09 and his 10K PR is an awesome 37:48. I've seen him turn a 60 on the track. He willingly runs any training run I throw at him, never crying uncle, and trains like a mother on his own to boot. We've had training runs where I'm throwing my A-game at him yet watched helplessly as he pulled away from me. But every year something goes wrong for him in the marathon. He needs a 3:10 for Boston but his PR is around 3:30 or 3:31. Heck, we've done numerous 20+ mile training runs faster than that. But in marathons he runs into one problem after another - going out too fast, cramps, stomach issues, and two weeks ago a burning pain in his hip at mile 22! Steve Schroeder and I concluded that we somehow need to trick his brain into thinking that the marathon is just another long-training run with Lance. So that's what I'm going to do.

We're headed to Pensacola, FL on Saturday, Feb. 14, to run the next morning in the Pensacola Marathon. I'm going to lock in a 7:10 to 7:15 pace, Brian is going to put his brain on auto-pilot, follow me, and we're hopefully going to get 'er done. It's too late for Brian to go to Boston this year but the qualification will be good for next year.

So I wanted to get in one long-run over 20 miles at an aggressive pace before we do it. Wish us luck.