Go Long Baby

I took Friday May 22nd off from work to extend my Memorial day weekend. I decided to get up early and go to Quentin PA and run on a PA Rails to Trails segment. I have ridden bike here once or twice before, but I would not regard myself as familiar with the trail.

I intially wanted to attempt to run eight miles, but felt very good and decided to up the ante and go for ten miles. I brought a strawberry-banana flavored energy gel pack with 25 mg of caffeine from PowerBar. I also wore a Camelbak Classic 70 oz hydration backpack with water and ice cubes.

I ran five miles south toward Lancaster and then returned the same way. The majority of the trail is shaded so the heat was not an issue.

I ran the ten miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes. This distance exceeded my personal best by some four miles. I was running 11 minute miles toward the end of the run. This translates to roughly 2 hours and 20 minutes for a 13.1 mile half marathon.

I was not a fan of this trail run because the ground was not paved, it was a loose fine gravel.

When you plant your foot within the gravel and push off, you lose a certain amount of traction due to the gravel compacting under your weight. Add that lost energy up over the duration of ten miles and there is a fair amount of energy expended at packing gravel during the run.

At the five mile turnaround mark I ate the Power Bar gel pak and washed it down with some water from the Camelbak hydration pak. I did not feel any added energy surge until about 7.5 miles, some 20-30 minutes later. The surge only lasted for a mile and a half, although it provided me with enough energy to get me to the ten mile mark.

During the half marathon I will need two of the energy gel packs to get me through the race. This run has proven to be a tremendous confidence booster in terms of believing I can finish the Stratton-Faxon half-marathon at the end of June.