Day after 16-mile long-run, Jess Borsotti triumphs at 4th annual A Community Racing for Research 5K

After a 16-mile long-run on Saturday, Jess won the 4th annual A Community Racing for Research 5K in 21 minutes flat yesterday. Results.

It was warm (in the 70s) for our long-run on Saturday in South Hadley, MA. Jess did 16, and I did the first 10, biking the last six. I secured my bike behind a group of trees, and coincidentally, at the bottom of a steep, half-mile hill. Before switching to my bike, I bathed in, and sipped from, a nearby stream. I tried to keep this a secret from Jess, but my wet hair was a giveaway. And then I continued to rub it in. Oh, well.

Boston Marathon 2010

Instead of streaming the 114th running of the Boston Marathon from a computer, Jessica and I decided to go to Boston to watch the marathon in person. We "started at the finish line" on Boylston Street. We watched the elites on TV at Whiskey's and then moved outside onto Boylston Street to watch them finish, along with scores of other runners, including Jessica's friends Kristyn (3:29:23) and Elaina (3:29:01). Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot won in 2:05:52--a new course record! Ryan Hall and Meb Keflezighi took fourth and fifth places, respectively. Hall set a new course record for an American (2:08:41--59 seconds faster than his time last year).

Jim2

During my 8th week of marathon training, building up for the 2007 Hartford Marathon, I ran a 6:52/mile 5K. I was shocked, given that my previous 5K PR was just shy of 8:00/mile, and that I hadn't ever done any speedwork. I was just logging plain, old miles, all of which were about 10:00/mile. I wanted to know how this could be, so I posted, back in August 2007, the following on one of Runners World's forums and received a thorough and helpful analysis by Jim2, which can be seen HERE.

Jim2 recently passed away after a long battle with cancer. See article here.

Marathon training -- week 3

Jessica and I are training for the Missoula Marathon, which is on July 11th in Missoula, Montana. We are following different marathon training plans, but we do our long runs on the same day. Jessica's long runs have been longer than mine thus far, and to ensure that she's hitting her splits, I've paced her through the first miles of her long runs (my long runs). Ha! It's very rare that I'm not running 30 to 50 yards back of Jessica. Even in that position, I'm pushing it.

I did nine today; Jessica did 14 and change, her longest run ever to date. She ran it at an 8:03 pace, and she said that she felt great, maybe her best since beginning training. I went out too hard today and, therefore, had little left in the tank for the hills in the later miles. I ran negative splits last weekend over a truncated version of today's long-run route and felt much stronger on the hills than I did on the hills today. Controlling the pace in the early miles is key.

I knew that Jessica was feeling good today, because she looked strong on the hills, cruising right up them. She had some doubts going into today's long run, as this week will be a tough week--48 miles--the most she's done in three or four years, but she wound up having a solid run.

Thirteen more weeks to go.