Sunday, August 2, 2009

Loneliness of a LD Runner




I have the book "Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner" and I even tried reading it, but gave up because it was so boring. I suppose the book is a metaphor for what long distance running is like...boring and rather lonely when running by yourself. Even though I had my husband with me today on my run, it was still rather lonely because as Patty knows, the husbands don't talk much when running. I was determined to run 10 miles today because I will be missing next week's 14 mile run, but I also had it in the back of my head that if I was feeling okay, I would continue on and run more. My husband and I ran from our house down McBean to Newhall Ranch where we ran across the Bristol Farms shopping center to Grandview and into Bridgeport Elementary. From there, we connected to the Lowes trail and crossed the river behind the post office and headed towards South Fork. Once we got to South Fork, we stopped and refilled our water bottles and walked for about ten minutes. I wanted to try our walking/running strategy for the marathon and so we ran about 3.5 miles and then walked for 10 minutes. When we were running on the South Fork trail, my husband told me to scoot over more so he can run in the white line lane too. I pointed out to him that there was no one around so there was no need for us to cram into this little white lane. What is it about husbands and running in the white lanes? My husband stopped before the Wiley Bridge and I continued on to the end of the trail at Orchard Village where I turned around and met up with him again. On our way back we stopped at the South Fork water fountain and walked for 10 minutes again. This is when I started feeling the blister on my left pinkie toe and ran into Chris D. the first time. We continued back toward McBean and ran under the bridge to the bike trail side and ran to Heritage Park for a bathroom and water break. My husband stayed with me until Decoro when he turned off the trail and headed home for a 10 mile record for him. This was mile 11 for me and I was actually feeling "okay" energy-wise, but feeling a bit more pain in my feet. I continued up the trail to almost Copperhill where the last water fountain is and turn around at that point. As I was heading back down to Decoro, I ran into Chris D. again and she had this look of surprise like "what is she still doing out here?". Once I got to Decoro, I turned toward McBean and crossed the bridge, but I was still short 1/2 mile so I ran down McBean again for 1/4 mile and back up to my house to make it an even 14 miles. My overall pace was 11min/mi which included all the walking so that wasn't too bad. I have to say, this run didn't feel any worse than the 12 miles we did last week, in fact maybe a little easier because of the cooler weather and less hills, but there was certainly more pain. The bottom of my feet were feeling rather bad, not to mention the blister. I was also cramping up in my left forearm and my right groin. The worst part of the run was when I finally finished and stopped. My calves locked up and it was very painful just trying to stretch. Sorry this was so long, but like I said, husbands don't talk much on runs and I was running by myself for much of the run so there was a lot to share today. Now I am done with my 14 miler and can go away and play without any guilt.

2 comments:

Patty said...

WOW! great job, I don't think I could have done that much running by myself. After the difficulty of our 12 miler I have lost my enthusiasm for these long runs and am afraid they are all going to be torture. I am wondering if you are going to feel like running tomorrow morning, especially with a blister. Now the pressure is on C and I to complete that run next weekend (ugh!)

marathon mom said...

I took an epsome bath after my run because I was too tired to stand for a shower and actually dozed for a while in the tub, not sure how long. I am now able to walk without looking totally crippled. I have to be at CP tomorrow morning so I'll give it a try and see what happens. Right now, the thing that bothers me the most are the underside of my arms, which got quite raw from rubbing back and forth. It's interesting to see what starts to bother you after so many miles. As the book Once a Runner says, "the trial of miles, the miles of trials".