Reliving the Thunder Road Marathon

Time: 110:56
Distance: 17.01
Pace: 6:31
Map

I met up with a great crew this morning for a long run through the streets of Charlotte. The CRC die hards were at the Dowd YMCA about 7:30 am for a run over the second half of the Thunder Road Course. I started near the back of the pack, but was able to catch the likes of Caitlin, Meagan, Paul, Billy, Aaron, Justin and others by the 10 minute mark. I really don't know the course that well despite having run the TRM course. The second half of the race last December was a bit of a blur and I had the luxury of following the lead vehicle.

Today the pace was comfortable early on and I had second thoughts about doing the second half quicker. My coach, Jeff, had me down for running the second half of a 14 miler in under 5:30 pace. I just didn't think the legs were going to move that quick this morning. I was content to run with the group for about 6 miles and then I hit the front to see if I could wake myself up. I couldn't manage much better than 6:30s as the run took me to NoDa. I decided to back off and run with the group some more as it started to string out. Justin was game to push things along with Billy, Chris (from TrySports), and Paul. Around 11 miles Aaron came screaming up The Plaza and I think he said he dropped a 5:26 mile to do so.

I finally started feeling good around 12 miles and Chris was right on my shoulder. I picked up the pace going up McDowell and he tagged along. It wasn't until crossing Morehead that he fell off or decided to loop back for the others. I found myself on a tempo loop that I used this winter. It's hilly but a useful route and it allowed me to focus on running two rounds versus the 4 miles I had to complete. See the splits for how I finished up.

Splits:
7:58, 7:15, 7:09, 6:54, 6:51, 6:42, 6:36, 6:41,
6:43, 6:31, 6:12, 5:52, 5:45, 5:42, 5:28, 5:25, 7:05

I didn't average under 5:30 for the last half, however the effort was there.

The morning got even better when I showed up to Caitlin's and she was busy cooking a pancake feast. We had blueberry and chocolate chip options. John also splurged and bought a $10 bottle of syrup, but decided to return it. Damn that Trader Joe.