Pam's birthday, but needed to get in the long run anyway. So I drove over to run the route Tom e-mailed me, and realized almost immediately that I forgot my gels. Came up with a plan, though, and set out. After about six miles, I called Tyler on his cell (which woke him up, of course) and asked him to bring a couple of gels and meet me in Burns Park. He got there a little quicker than I expected, so we moved the meeting spot from the boat ramp to the concrete bridge. Sure enough, there he was in his van, in his housecoat, with my gels. Thanked him and told him to go home and go back to bed. Which he did.
OK, back from birthday lunch, where we ran into Scotty Thurman and Corliss Williamson, stars of the 1994 national championship basketball team, but that's another story. Back to the run.
So I'm moving along at a decent clip but not overdoing it, kinda cruising. Took a gel at nine miles, took another one at about 15. Then I get to about 18 and, gel or no gel, the gas tank needle is bouncing on E. I kept going pretty well, probably better than any other long run I've ever done, but the legs were dead. Then I got to the top of the hill leading back down to the Surgical Hospital, my starting point, and I'm running dead into about a 15-mph wind. I had forgotten how much trouble I used to have in my long-ago track career running into the wind; the wind around here is so rarely strong enough to be a factor. But today it was, especially after I'd already run 20 miles. But I chugged it home anyway and finished the run in just a couple of minutes over GMT (goal marathon time). Pfitz said a good 22-mile long run should take you just about as long as GMT. I didn't do 25, but I did 21 and probably some change, depending on how accurate the Garmin is.
Overall, definitely my best LR ever. Another source of confidence with 55 days to go to Memphis. Not perfect, but then yesterday wasn't really a rest day with that hike around Fayetteville, so if I'm supposed to do my LR with tired legs, today should qualify. And I have decided that for right now (maybe carb loading and tapering will fix this), my wall isn't at 20 miles, it's at 18. | 