Scheduled: 18
Actual: 18
RPE: 4-6
Let's just sit back a minute and bask in the glory of my first 18 miler, shall we? I mean really. Who thought I could run 18 miles? Not me, that's for sure. But I did. And I have to say, recapping these long runs is kind of hard. I was talking to Louie about it last night and he, the good boyfriend that he is, wanted to know how the run was. And I said it was good. And then I said I'm really nervous about the marathon because it's 8 miles longer than what I just did. And he was like, but you just said that it was good! Which is where, I guess, one word answers can't really encapsulate a run that lasted just under 4 hours. That's half a work day. Spent running.
I'm trying to figure out how to explain why a run that made every muscle in my legs feel like they were broken and constricted and couldn't ever return to normal, could also feel good. I guess it's that even though your legs hurt and you're tired and it might rain, but it's also getting kind of hot in the sun, and you're sick of Fierce Melon Gatorade, but you need some carbs, that there are these moments, fleeting sometimes, but other times lasting 4 or so minutes where your body just moves. And there is no stopping it from moving. It's on autopilot. It doesn't stop hurting, but it doesn't matter that it hurts. This is what flow is. You know you're still in serious agony, and any sane person would just stop, but you keep going because pain means something different to you now. And you know that you are in charge of your body, but it is also in charge of you. Your brain and your extremities have somehow managed to work things out without you having to tell them to. It's amazing.
All that, but it's still really fucking awful too. There are moments lasting far longer than 4 minutes, if you let them, when you think about how crazy it is to spend half a work day running. How it isn't normal. How it isn't right. But you can't let those thoughts stay around for long. The most amazing moment during this run was after an hour I looked at my watch and couldn't believe that an hour had already passed. That first hour was so fun. Then things got bad, but then at mile 7 they got great again. I have to say that I think I hit a piece of the wall at mile 13, but after I drank more Gatorade and let my body do the work, I felt really good for the last two miles. Really good, but also in extreme pain.
"90% of the game is half mental," I think is the Yogi Bera quote.
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5 comments:
Holy crap! You ran from Camp Verde to Cottonwood and then on a little ways to Sedona. That's awesome. Scary, but awesome.
I think you might have had a runner's high around mile 7. Some people never get to experience that. It's the body's internal drug factory at work. Euphoria...or as euphoric as you can get while punishing your body.
I love that euphoria, it's amazing. Tavia, I didn't think about it that way. That's fricking crazy.
First of all, congratulations. 18 miles is AWESOME!
But I have kind of a technical question. When you're running for 4 hours, where do you carry drinks and/or food with you? and do you have to stop to go to the bathroom?
Good question, Irish. I take a weird route that allows me to go by my house and car. If you saw it on the map it would look like a three leaf clover with a spiky stem. So I carry one bottle with me, then stash bottles of water on my stoop and in my car, so as I breeze by them I switch the empty with the fresh. It's kind of a pain, but it has worked better for me than the Camelbak (a water carrying system) that my sister so lovingly gave me. As for the bathroom. I take care to go before I run, and so far it hasn't been a problem.
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