Train Walk (or powered by potatos)

This Saturday was train walk day. The team took a train from Solana Beach to Oceanside and then walked along the coast back to our cars! The route which follows along the coast and into some neighborhoods is a total of 18 miles long!

Here are a few photos from the day that started at the train station before 6:30am.








Waiting for the train at Oh My God O'Clock.


















Here it comes!




















Melissa on the train.
















Stretching in Oceanside before getting started.














On the road.









I had a blast on Saturday. I started out feeling pretty blah but was feeling a lot better after about mile 6. The energy gels really helped me out along the way. I think I did really well carbing (potatos!) up the night before and staying hydrated the entire day. I just need to make sure I get more sleep the night before. I tried to maintain a 15 minute/mile pace. Christine and I both finished very strong. We sprinted Miles 16 and 18 with a back down pace on Mile 17 to catch our breaths. I felt so strong at the finish that I'm sure I could have completed the full marathon that day. Check out these times! The last mile was my fastest!

Mile	Time
(#)	(m:s)
1	16:08
2	15:09
3	14:36
4	14:59
5	15:03
6	14:37
7	14:22
8	15:21
9	15:26
10	14:58
11	15:00
12	15:16
13	15:23
14	15:40
15	15:02
16	13:16
17	14:24
18	13:12

I felt great after the walk and also the day afterwards. I didn't even get sore. The only negative thing was that I got a big blister on the "pad" of my right foot. I apologize in advance for the squeamish among you.

















This is going to put a serious damper into my training for the week. I'm also going to have to figure out how to do a better job avoiding them in the future.