Planned ahead for my long run this weekend. Since I couldn't join up with the team, I plotted out my route on MapMyRun earlier in the week: a wide loop that started out to the east from the hotel, then turned up and to the northwest across the top of Lake Delton, then down the west side, back up the east side, before cutting back down to Kalahari.
Left the room a little before 7:00 AM. The sun was well up into the sky. Roads were quiet, albeit more than a little hilly, and offered some beautiful early morning views. Had some struggles along the way with all of the hills, sometimes walking up them, sometimes not. Everything was probably a little more difficult because of the solo nature of the run -- I realize how much it helps to have somebody else from the team to run with. I finished an entire bottle of Gatorade by the time I got mile ten. Really needed to stay hydrated with some deceptive heat along the way.
As with so many of my runs these days, while it may feel like I'm just muddling my way through the miles, at the end of the day it turned out to be just fine. 11.7 miles in 2:09:10, just a shade over an 11 minute mile. That's right in line with what my "long, slow runs" should be (and is actually a little faster than any of my previous long runs).
And almost another $1,000 in donations to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society came in this week, bringing my total to $4,569.50. Very exciting progress -- I'm almost to the minimum required for both marathons, with several months to go, yet!
Saturday's mileage: 11.7 miles in 2:09:10
Week 5 mileage: 22 miles over four days of running, plus two days of cross-training.
Total mileage: 91 miles.
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