My flights home from Pittsburgh were great and I was able to kiss the kids who were all sleeping quietly when I get home. I was wired from the trip, so I sat up reading too late. My neighbors, Jon and Kari, had agreed to meet at 7 am for our long Saturday run. Jon is training for a marathon in April. Kari is "just keeping us company", but she manages to run longer, faster and easier than me every time.
Kari had conflicts for the morning, so we decided to do two 7 mile laps, so she could drop off in the middle. The first several miles were really pretty easy. We talked about the events of the week and kept it right at a 9 minute pace, which was our goal. At about mile 5, we hit a series of quick, steep hills before we level off again. For some reason, the hills really took it out of me and I found myself wishing I could stop with Kari after the first lap. We pulled in right at 63 minutes and grabbed our water and I took a few minutes to say hi to the kids, who were upset that they woke up to no dad again.
Jon and I started up again and it felt like I was running with barrels on my legs. I wrote it off to the crazy Friday morning run on the ice, short night and stopping for too long between runs. Our goal was to get closer to a 8:30 pace for the second lap. We kept that going for a bit. We have a nice steady downhill between mile 1 & 2 followed by a steep incline. By the end of that incline, I had no breath and my legs felt like rocks. I walked for about 20 seconds and then ran again. I tried to get my mind off of how I felt by talking about anything. Jon probably thought I was crazy.
By the time we hit the 1o mile point, I was fried. I told Jon to go on without me. I was apologetic and mad for leaving him to run alone and discouraged at my own lack of discipline. I walked about another 30 seconds and then thought I'd just try to run home slowly. When I got to the turn to go home, I went the opposite direction. I was still so mad at myself that I decided to at least go the long way home and add a little more distance. For the next two miles, I kept running (slowly), but on our path promising that if I could just get to the next tree, driveway, road, signpost, that I could walk. When I got to the next tree, driveway, road, signpost, I negotiated another milestone. I finally had to stop to cross a busy road and walked for two minutes to get my breath back and to put some drops in my eyes. My legs were screaming and I hurt all over.
By this time, I was as far from home as I could be, so I might as well finish the 14 mile run, right? I started running again and walked from the middle to the peak of the next two hills (ugh). As I started the final two miles, I didn't know if I was ever going to get home. I remembered reading some place that you should just focus on your shadow to get your mind off of the act of running. I did that until the sun was in front of me. At that point, I started counting steps. I'd run 100 steps and then another one hundred steps. Then, I could walk 100 steps. I repeated that, increasing my running steps each time.
During this time, two puppies ran out of a yard and in to the street right in front of a pickup truck. I through my arms up and stopped the truck, got the puppies shepherded back in to their yard and then started the run again. I was amazed at how I could feel so exhausted, but then be able to respond quickly to a dog nearly getting hit by a truck. The body is amazing.
Jon, who had run the entire thing in 59 minutes, got in his van to find me since he notice my water bottle was still out on the street. He drove next to me for the last .75 miles talking about our next run and how well he thought we were doing and what he was planning to do that night. Good old Jon kept me running next to the van the whole way and I finished the back half in 75 minutes.
So, my first "half +" was not glamorous, but I was proud to have completed it -- especially since I had completely bailed at one point. I learned a little about the science of the body in the next hour (as my system collapsed!) and later that evening over dinner with some friends. I'll write more about that when I get all the facts straight in my head.
My plan calls for a 4-7-4 week and a 15-mile run next Saturday. I'm going to take Friday off this week.
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1 comment:
Couple of thoughts ...
did you carry any water on this run other than what was at the seven mile mark?
did you carry any nutrition?
It seems to me that you had a very educational experience, on a variety of fronts ... you learned a lot in your head on how to push on through and how your body responds. And you brought yourself to a new level. Doing that after sitting in a plane for that long - AWESOME.
Keep on trucking.
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