3/14/10 - 24.1 miles

This was a tough run but it went fairly well. I had to stop at a gas station on the way to use the restroom on the way up so the group was just about ready to take off when I got there. I wanted to make sure I got enough vaseline on and finish my PowerBar for breakfast so they took off and I left a couple minutes behind them. I caught up to the front pack after about 5 miles. I wasn't really that interested in do the entire run by myself so I ran with the group for most of the workout. There were 7 of us - Guy, Monte, Kylie, Jeff, Richard, Gary and myself. I know at least one of them was shooting to hit 3 hrs at Boston and the rest I think were going for the 3:10 - 3:20 range. It was nice having people to run with and talk to because I get really bored running the long runs by myself. I averaged 7:30 pace for the first 17 miles. I probably could have easily averaged 7:00 - 7:10, but I was glad to be out there just getting the miles in and being on my legs for almost 3 hrs. We started picking up the pace some when we were around 15 miles and dropped down to about 7:00 pace at that point. When I got to mile 18 I told the group I was going to pick up the pace and try to get down to around sub 6:30 pace. Unfortunately about that point my Garmin memory was full and it wasn't automatically deleting the old laps off so I only got on split for my last 7 miles instead of individual miles. I averaged 6:30 pace for my last 6 miles and finished the 24.1 miles in 2:55. It was tough, but I got the time in and had a good run and my hamstring seemed to hold up ok. Near the end of my run, I took off my compression sleeve for about 2.75 miles and I could definitely feel the hamstring a little more without it. I think I will definitely need to wear it when I run the marathon. My training is going much better leading up to Boston than leading up to Houston.