Doctor Who Run for my 28 miler

On Saturday, I ran my longest run which is 28 miles for this training cycle. I could have run it solo, but I chose instead to run it as part of Phyllis’s SLR Doctor Who 50k Run at McAlpine.

Before I get into my recap, I want to give Phyllis some “kudo”s. She organizes these events. They bring out all kinds of food, drinks, and plenty of people. This leads me to believe that she needs to take up the race directing profession. She gets more people to come out to an event with basically “0” budget for advertising and food.

Phyllis does a great job making these things happen, and the Charlotte Running Community is lucky to have her.

For Saturday's run, Phyllis had mapped out roughly a 10k loop that included a major portion of the XC course and all of lower Boyce.

The course had only one hill it but it was the steep side of Mt. McAlpine. Actually, when I am running a very flat course like this one, I start to look forward to the hill. My quads like the little change in usage even if it is only for a few minutes.

A few people started early but most of us started at 7AM. With only a "fanfare" twenty to thirty began their Doctor Who 50k trek.

I ran with Megan and few others for a couple of loops. I ran with Chris for a while. I ran with Brian Trotter for a while.

Interesting story here, a couple of years ago I beat Brain at a 5k in Belmont. Then, later in the same year he beat me in a half marathon that I was using for a long run. Since then, he has refused to race me heads up at any distance.

Later in the day, I see on FaceBook where he says something about beating me by an hour. Yeah, I guess he did finish before me, but he was running 20 miles not 28. I found it strange how he left out some of those important details like we ran different distances. LOL. I still want a heads up race with him. LOL.

As the early morning turned into mid morning, it got down to just me running solo over the last 10k and half.

My legs were getting stiff. I could especially feel it in my hip flexors.

Overall, it was a solid day. I went through the marathon point in 3:25 without too much strain. All in all, it was a good day. I spent the next several hours just hanging out. What else could a runner need?

Before wrapping up, I want to give Jeff a shout out. He ran the 50k in 3 hours and 50 minutes. This run and the WWC 50 miler are all part of Jeff’s training for a 100 miler later this fall. “Kudo”s to him for his efforts on Saturday.

 

Sharing one thought at a time,

The Cool Down Runner