Balbo Park Domination

Time: 153:55
Distance: 23.00 miles
Pace: 6:41
Splits: 7:58, 7:20, 7:39, 7:07, 7:14, 7:13, 7:39, 7:25, 7:33, 7:50, 7:30, 7:09 (dropped Meagan off at the house), 5:56, 5:52, 5:59, 5:43, 5:52, 5:46, 5:31, 6:14, 5:20, 5:37, 6:27

This morning was a long one. I wasn't too concerned with the distance, but I wanted to be out the door for roughly the amount of time I would be running during the marathon in February. Meagan and I took a leisurely stroll from the house to Balboa Park and ran a few miles on the upper section. Next we ventured in toward the zoo and across to the other side of the park where we attempted and failed to find the Footlocker Nationals course for the 8th time. Meagan was trying to run in the neighborhood of 15 miles but woke up feeling crappy and decided to cut things short about 8 miles into the effort today. I tried to keep things easy as we ran back to the house and when I dropped her off I was ready to start increasing the pace.

The split times on the upper section when I ran back to Balboa Park came easily and I didn't start pressing until I ran back to the opposite side of the park. Along Florida is where I dropped a 5:30 and then slowed to 6:14 on the uphill/switchback section. I made one last pass around the upper grassy section and threw down a 5:20 feeling confident and then backed off to 5:37 before calling it a day at jogging back home. I took one Gu around 60 minutes and ran the entire run without taking water. It was probably not the smartest thing to do but it all worked out in the end. I was happy to put in over 2 hours and 30 minutes of running today and it is quite possibly my longest run ever. I know I can run hard for over 2 hours and 20 minutes, I just hope it's not too much more than that in February.