Last "long" long run in the books

Ross and I met at Lake Hefner Saturday morning bright and early to do a last long run a couple of weeks before the marathon. We had a pretty cool morning temp, down near 40 and while it was nowhere near as windy as Friday, there was still a stiff wind blowing off the lake. We had hoped Sue would be able to run with us, but she had to work late Friday night and we met at the lake at 7 AM so she took a pass on it.

This was the first time I've run at Hefner. Ross had run there one time previously.  We both thought it was 11 miles around the lake which we thought would be a good long run for the 13 miles of the half, but it ended up being just under nine and a half miles according to my GPS watch. Ross and I ended up never putting our headphones on and just talked for the entire run. Besides some good company, this probably kept our pace a bit slower than it would have been if we'd been listening to music instead of talking. Not a bad thing in my mind since I always read you should keep the pace on your long runs slower than your normal pace, and I usually have a difficult time doing that.

We ran all the way to the golf course which was about half way around from where we started. We stopped at the golf course for about 5 minutes for a drink and a nature break, then continued on our way for the second half, at a bit quicker pace than we had run the first half. Finished the whole thing in a bit under an hour and a half then sat on the curb by our cars and shared an orange while recovering for a few minutes before heading home.

I'll be cutting back a bit for the next couple of weeks to let my body rest up. Probably do a couple of 4 milers during the week this week and maybe do a little 6 mile long run next weekend.

It's almost here! I'm excited to see everyone and to run the race too!