25km/3:52:02

This was the first benchmark run after Helvetia a few weeks ago, and started at 6am. That was the start of the run itself, so I had to get out of bed at 4:30 so I could have some water, get fluids sorted out, and just generally wake up. It was dark. I haven't got up befre dawn in several months.

Despite that, many things went well on this run - using the HRM meant I was tired but still pretty much there even at the end of the run (kept it below 170 for most of the run); the new hydration pack that I bought earlier in the week gave me enough fluids to not have to stop for a refill; and although I ran slowly I felt like I maintained a reasonable speed for a lot more of the run than I would have expected.

Yes, many things went well. The one thing which went really badly was my navigation

The route we took was down the west side of the Willamette from OSF, across the Sellwood bridge, along the beginnigs of the Springwater Corridor, then up to the Eastmoreland/Reed College area for a loop and back the way we came.

Most of this went OK - we hit the halfway point running pretty much dead on eleven minute miles.

However, at this point I had to slow things down a bit to keep my heart rate down and the guy I was running with (C, who I had thought lost due to a persistent Achilles injury) went on ahead. I made the mistake of just following other runners and ended up following the wrong ones so I ran part of the loop twice!

I realised this just coming up to a T junction and then turned around (I'd done less than half of the loop, so this was worth doing). The end result was that I ran an extra couple of miles on top of the 15½ miles which I should have done.

The benefit of these bonus miles is that I now know I can keep going even when it's hot by watching my heart rate and drinking lots, and that I'm decided on doing another half in a few weeks time. A week before the 30K benchmark is the Bridge Run, and there's a half marathon distance on that day which I think I'll do.

I did the Bridge Pedal a couple of years ago, and going over the hugely arched freeway bridges in human powered transport is just magnificent. Despite the extra weight, I will definitely carry a camera.

For now all I want is to be able to walk comfortably again...

Posted by Dunx at July 17, 2004 02:09 PM