Some great routes all the way down from Bretton woods Ski area in New Hampshire to the Hampton beach. The home stretch was probably the best ragnar finish ever. Despite decent timing, I had a real bad time on my second leg. Not sure if I should attribute it to the training or just how i felt during the run. Probably just one of those ‘meh’ runs.
One of most exhilarating (and wet) runs so far. The night run with pitch dark trails and just Joaquin for company made this one unforgettable experience. Reminded me of the Katrabai Pass hike back in India. The Ragnar Appalachians still remains unchecked!
Ran the #ECSNY Half at the Bear Mountain State park today! As the stats down under reveal – this was one divine killer run. One of the hardest long-runs I’ve run so far. My average timing on ‘flat-road’ half-marathons has been 02:10. Over the last few weeks as I mentally and physically prepared for this run I was estimating a sub 03:00 finish.
About six miles on the trail I targeted a sub 02:45 finish – But I guess I succumbed to the mountains and then the mind lost to the body in the last 3 or 4 miles. My initial strategy was to hike up the inclines and run down the slopes. Out there, running down the trails was absolutely inevitable and my glutes and calves reminded me of the innumerable hikes done years back in India. A gracious fall by a culvert further slowed me down. I ended with a 03:27 finish. Though these run stats are deplorable even under average standards; I had a truly wonderful time on the trail there.
In hindsight, I believe I need to strongly work on my lower back and do a lot more hill training. Also calls for a lot more hikes to work on the glutes and calves. Now that the Bear mountain hike is off the list, eye’s on the SRT hike/run later this year.
Great weather, strong finish and yet another run that convinced me running on city roads isn’t quite my thing. This most probably would be my last ‘scheduled’ run for 2014 and couldn’t have asked for a finer closure of a crazy week. Another exciting family event adds further to this silver lining making this run even more memorable.
Mile 10 will be remembered and Philadelphia – we shall be back!
Just found a nifty plugin that would map charts feeding off from gpx inputs. Here are the chart outputs from my recent Ragnar Run.