Monday, July 23, 2012

Run 1.43/1.44 - My Running is of Legal Age Now

Friday: I had the big, fat gay wedding to go to on Saturday in Portland, so we ran Saturday's run on Friday night. I had temporarily thought of making it 4 miles but stayed with the assigned 3. Not much to report. We kept it to the neighborhood area since it was dark. All was going pretty well until we hit the neighborhood by the treatment plant. Holy sh!t!! And s-h-i-t isn't an exaggerated. First we had a skunk smell to run through. Fine, it's Oregon, we have skunks. No biggie. But then you mix that with the smell of human feces filling the air? Yuck. BOTH MF and I ended up woozy. I was already having Meniere's issues, and then you add the nauseating smell of running in a toilet bowl to the mix and you get a disaster. I would be so mad if I moved into that neighborhood and later learned what it smells like on warm summer nights! To finish it off MF begged me to just talk and tell him stories so he could get through the run without vomiting. It was so gross.

Sunday: After driving home from Portland I totally passed out. The Man Friend had parental duties pop up. So things were reversed. Instead of having our reward lunch after the run we had it for dinner first, then told ourselves that meant we HAD to be awesome and get in every single mile. At 9:15pm I started my Garmin and we set out for EIGHTEEN miles. The weather was absolutely perfect. We both had on head lamps and blinking lights attached to the back of our hats. Also we were both in neon yellow to at least appear a little brighter. This run was our first with the new fuel belts we picked up last weekend. I had them each stocked with cold water, 2 gels and a pack of Clif shot blocks. We were all set to go!

The plan was just to wind all over the close neighborhoods. Any time we wanted to turn, we did. Hills were no obstacle - and we encountered some doozies for sure! Conversation flowed the whole time with a huge variety of topics. That really does help the running just fly by. All those years I spent only running alone and now the thought of going alone seems so ... quiet.

Fuel: We took gel #1 at 4.5 miles in. When we hit our half way point at mile 9 we each had a full pack of Clif shot blocks, which I find ridiculously tasty! The plan was one more gel around mile 14 but both of us felt we actually had enough in us that we passed on the final round of fueling. Mid-run we decided to run back to my house and drop off our empty hand helds (and let me have a quick potty stop). In no time at all we were back on the road to finish the last 7 miles hands free. I liked not carrying any water and this let me practice grabbing from the fuel belt. No problem - I will call this Nathan fuel belt a success!

Running: For the first 1/3 we were taking short walk breaks every two miles. Soon, though, we were in the BIG hills. We'd run up most and then quickly walk the rest taking the chance to get some more water. Then resume running. We kept that pattern for quite a while. On the second half of the run we were both getting tired - mind you it was after midnight at this point - so obviously we felt tired! Our successful plan of attack was to run half a mile, walk about a minute, then run half a mile, walk a minute, etc.... We kept that up for the last 3 miles and actually started having faster splits. Our 18th mile was the 4th fastest of the entire run!

At 1:30 AM we were back at my house taking quick showers, uploading Garmin data and crawling into bed by 2am. 5 hours later I was up and getting ready for work. Oy. Tonight we are going to have a feast!! Overall I really liked this run. It was so quiet, we had the streets to ourselves, the temperature was ideal. Everything just fell into place! A Great way to end the week!!
 
You can find me farthest to the right - a young thing of EIGHTEEN years!
 
 

4 comments:

  1. I can't believe you stayed up that late running. YOU ARE CRAZY!

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  2. Your blog is awesome. I saw your comment regarding "plans" on Ohh Breathe Just Breathe and loved it! (wise words) Looking forward to reading more... :-)

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  3. Holy crapsticks. That is a late late night. You are pretty awesome for 1. running that far and 2. staying up that late. If I'm up past 11 I get grouchy!

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  4. That IS a late run, but I could imagine it being awesome, weather-wise.
    You make me very jealous of the running partner. I don't want to train alone!! Ugh.

    Congrats on your 18 miler!! Im so proud!

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