The title is true. My iPod bravely entertained me through 18 miles this morning, whereupon it decided to curl up and die. It will not respond to anything at the moment. Bummer. It is too young to die. It didn't even reach it's fourth birthday, poor baby. Oh wait, as I type this a message just popped up that Apple is "Preparing iPod for recovery." iTunes to the rescue!!
In all seriousness, I ran 18.04 miles this morning. That's a full 2 miles longer than I've ever run before. My strategy was to run it in thirds, with hydration every 3 miles and fuel at the 6 and 12 mile marks. I knew I had the first two thirds in me and was comfortable figuring out the last 6 miles based on how I felt. The way the first third worked out, I ran 6.2 to get me back to the house for a quick bathroom break. Swallowed my Gu, topped off the water, and was back at it. As soon as I was back outside, I took off again and made it to 12 miles. Swallowed my Gu Rocktane, stretched, and walked a bit.
Now, when I say I walked, I wasn't dilly-dallying around. I was still passing people, just not other runners. As I walked, I decided on my final 1/3 strategy. Walk a half mile and run a mile 3 times, then see what I had left in me for the final mile. Well, guess what? I did that 4 times and just about had a victory party in the driveway.
Why the celebration? It's hot in Houston already. Heat kills a good long run every time. It's uncomfortable. You start worrying about dehydration. The streets start to stink. Just not fun. So around mile 14, I started thinking I might bow out early, between 16 and 17 miles. I tried to tell myself to get out of my head and focus on breathing, form, the music from my (still dead at the moment) iPod. Focus about ANYTHING, but not on stopping. This is why long distance runners will tell you it is as much mental as it is physical.
To backtrack for a minute, my run started this morning by being interrupted before I'd made it a quarter mile. A neighbor down the street stopped me to ask how far I was going. I patiently stopped the timer, popped out the headphones and replied, 18 miles and that I was training for a marathon. Turns out, he runs a marathon every year or two. So we chatted for a few minutes about training techniques, long run distances, hills vs. flat courses, and then he told me to take off before it started getting hot.
Flash forward to mile 16. I'd distracted myself as long as I could. Even though I've run 2 miles I don't know how many times in training, it just seemed like a little too long for how warm it was getting. It was over 80 degrees, the sun was bright, and there was very little wind or shade to be found. I was mentally prepared to run up to the park, walk the quarter mile loop around it once, and head home for 17 miles and change in total. Guess who just happened to drive by right then, honk, and wave? The neighbor. I smiled, waved back, and finished all 18 miles. Sometimes life hands you just the right pick-me-up exactly when you need it.
Now I begin the taper process, where I start gradually reducing the miles each week until the race. So guess what I'm going on Sunday? The Oyster Race in Austin. http://austinoyster.com/ That's about 20-30 miles of biking and running, while solving riddles and completing challenges like kayaking, rock climbing, and throwing fish at each other. It's going to be a blast.... and my next blog update!
Happy Friday!! Start slow, finish strong.
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