The Time It Took Me 10 Hours to Run 16 Miles

Based on how my weekend was going already I should have expected no less from Sunday. In my dream world I was going to get up at 5am, eat a quick breakfast, run my 16 miles, and be back before 8:30 and the worst of the heat. In reality, I slept in until 8:30 (having not gotten much sleep the night before), ate breakfast, and didn’t get into my running shoes until 10:30am. I knew it was going to hurt. I knew it would not be fun. Nothing takes the fun out of running like 95 degrees and 80% humidity. Fortunately I plotted my 16 miles locally, planning to pass by my house again every 4 miles in case I needed a water refill or bathroom break.

Pre-run, ready to go!

Water bottle and gels: check!

I fell apart at mile 2, when I hit my first turn around point. I had 2 miles back to the house at which point I was supposed to start leg 2 out of 4. The sun was pounding down. My feet were going so slow that I think they barely left the pavement. I felt like I was swimming except instead of cold water it was the thick, stale, humid air. I began to realize that I was not going to make it mile 16. I wasn’t even going to make it to mile 5. There was no way I could continue in these circumstances. I’ve been running in this heat wave all week long so why did it feel so hopeless now? Well, mentally knowing you have to run 4 miles is a lot different than knowing you have to run 16 miles. I can make it through 40 minutes of hot, humid hell. But we were talking about more than 2.5 hours! Had I gotten up earlier it may have been a different story. Maybe not. This heat wave hasn’t even given the ground enough time to cool at night. It’s been pretty miserable 24/7. During those 2 miles home all sorts of negativity and compromises were going through my head: maybe I can just try to make it to 33 mpw like last week, maybe I don’t need the extra 2 miles this week, that would mean I only have to run 10 more after this; maybe I can just try to make it to 30 miles this week which would mean I only have to run 7 more after this instead of 11 more; maybe I just have to accept that I’ll only run 4 miles today and this week will be a crap shoot and a failure. Neither my head nor body were in a good place.

After the morning 4 miles...dying

After stumbling home and holding my head in front of the air conditioner for 5 minutes and sprawling out on the wood floors for another 10 I began to get some positivity back. Okay I just need to break this up. Maybe I’ll go to the gym and use the treadmill. After all I do have that membership lying around. I should try to get some use out of it. Then maybe I’ll do part of the mileage tonight after the sun goes down. Maybe it will be cooler then. And wouldn’t you know that’s exactly what I did. After melting into the couch for two hours and fully recovering from the morning I got my butt up and headed to the gym. Fortunately its only a half block away so I didn’t expire in the heat on the way there. I was hoping to get 8 miles laid out, which would be challenging since I am a self-proclaimed treadmill hater. I get really bored and it’s too easy to just switch it off, give up, and go home. When I run 3 miles outside I usually have to run the 3 miles back to get home, hence I am compelled to run the entire distance. Amazingly though I was able to crush 8 miles out pretty quickly (or faster than I have been running outside lately anyway) thanks to my iPod and the Bourne Ultimatum playing on the gym TV. Who needs sound when you can just watch Matt Damon kick ass for an hour and 20 minutes?

Afterwards I went home, showered, scarfed down some grub and went grocery shopping with Mike. We then proceeded to melt into the couch all over again with the Law & Order: SVU marathon until the clock struck 8pm, at which point I once again dragged my butt up and ran my last 4 miles of the day. Surprisingly this last run was the most pleasant of the 3. The air had cooled a bit and the sun was going down. What a huge difference from how I felt during my morning 4 miles. It was a breath of fresh air to actually enjoy running again. And though my legs certainly felt as though they’d already run 12 miles that day, I had no soreness or pain. Maybe running every few hours in segments isn’t such a bad idea, if only to get your legs used to quick recovery. I’ll need this if I ever plan on doing back-to-back races like many runners do.
And so, there you have it: 16 miles in 10 hours. While I would have been ecstatic to have run all 16 miles consecutively, especially since this was my first attempt at this distance, I’m proud of myself nonetheless. Its challenging enough to get yourself out of the house to run once a day. So the fact that I was able to push myself out of the house 3 separate times is astonishing to me. Good thing I have no life too, and I can dedicate a whole Sunday just to running.

Update: Mike finally got his x-rays. He does have a heel spur in his left foot. He got measured for his orthotics on Friday. They should take 2 weeks to arrive and 10 days to break in. He’s also supposed to get a shot of cortisone every week for 3 weeks. So hopefully he will be running again by mid-August. Meanwhile, he’s been trying to bike a lot to make up for it. While I was hitting the treadmill yesterday to avoid the heat he headed up to Forbidden Drive for a good two hours on his bike.

Mike - serious face bike man

During his ride Mike took our awesome new camera with him. It can survive in water at depths of up to 16 feet, withstand a 5 foot fall, and hold up against 14 degree temperatures. For someone (me) who has broken expensive, fragile, super thin camera after camera this is a welcome addition to our household. If not for our outdoor adventures, then at least for my day to day clumsiness.