Wowza. 23.24 miles @ 5:52 pace. 2 hours, 16 minutes running. This will be my longest run in preparation for the marathon. It was really nice weather, in the low 60s, so yes I was definitely rewarded for avoiding the heat by going today instead of tomorrow. I even got a splash of rain. Crosby farm park was quiet and beautiful. It's near pike island and the scenery is very similar. You wouldn't expect either locations at the heart of the metro to feel like such untouched forest. Next time I go I'll take a different path, as I went on a closed path where I ran on an overgrown/broken boardwalk. Took 2 GU and 2 (small) water breaks. Here are some thoughts from the run:
-I will definitely say I felt daunted at the beginning when thinking of the distance I had to go and had a lot of negative self-talk. I hope to combat that with a couple thoughts: first, break the marathon down into smaller chunks. For example, "the race starts the last 13 miles" as my friend told me. This time, I realized that going halfway to the turnaround, about 35 minutes, wasn't too scary. I can also remind myself that everyone else is getting worn out by those early miles too.
-Even my non-caffeneited GU made me feel a little sick. The harder you're running, the less my stomach likes it. Hopefully I can work around that because not taking fuel is not an option. In fact, once concern about the marathon I have is that I always race faster than I train, but if your out of glycogen, you're out, and you're going to bonk no matter how tough you are. So I want to prevent that. Even if my stomach feels fine, today was my first time taking 2 GU and as yummy as they are, they begin to leave a salty, yucky taste in your mouth. It made me not want to have more, so I should probably take one as soon as I feel up to it during the race.
-Hopefully my shoes/socks combo during the race will be less prone to blisters than these were.
-Going on east river was a specific choice. I'm not sure if it is better or worse to run a course you are familiar with. I could see it going either way. In this case, it was nice to be able to just turn my brain off and run. Or for example when I got back to hidden falls, I could basically treat it like a normal long run home.
Well, it was hard but I feel fine about it. The course wasn't easy. 240 feet gain going out, 420 feet coming back (for 11.5 miles that actually sounds pretty flat).
| 