20 mi. This was the first twenty mile run of the marathon plan. Due to the Turtleman Triathlon happening on Saturday, I ran Friday morning. This made Saturday my “off” day.
I started alone at 5am and ran to St Paul of the Cross Church on Singer Island. That was good – preloading my effort with eight miles before going straight up A1-A to Jupiter Inlet. I brought a water bottle in the neoprene hand holder for the first 8 miles, and left a bottle with Sword drink at Donald Ross Rd. that I could pick up once heading north.
During my run north, I saw a strange light in the sky. My first guess was a helicopter shining a red light on the highway. That didn’t make sense, so I thought maybe it was a plane. But planes don’t fly around our area that early. I didn’t know there was a Space X rocket launch planned. The plume cloud it made changed shape and formed a “whale tail” cloud that was high enough to be illuminated by the sun before the sun rose up. It was a very interesting thing to watch. The lights, path, and clouds were further west than I would have expected a launch to appear. I couldn’t make out what this was, I left it to an experimental plane or a missile.
I started to use the Sword drink at Donald Ross Rd, that worked well. Stocked with carbohydrates, it didn’t have much taste and it wasn’t making me burp, so it was a winner. I don’t know how a person could use it in a marathon where you don’t get to place your own hydration bottles on the course!
It was hot and humid – plenty of sweating for me. I stopped and refilled the hand bottle and went to the men’s room at the Inlet turnaround. It was a good run, my final two miles were up and over the Donald Ross Bridge to add hills to the run. Finishing right at my car in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot, my average pace was 7:59 which was a few seconds faster than recommended in the Amby Burfoot pacing charts.
drun4fun 