Its a weird kind of psychosis that us runners have with our hobby that is causing me to feel a bit of sadness that the 22 miler I did this morning is the last long run before the first fall marathon on September 13th. The good part is that I did the same course I did last week, but knocked 7 minutes off it .. and I got pumped at the end as well and did want to do more, but stopped myself. I make it sound like its the last long run i’ll do this year, but with 2 other marathons yet to go in October and then November, i still have plenty of 20+ milers to go …
I did kind of celebrated a bit that marathon season is coming fast .. and ended up looking like an idiot to my neighbors, but hey, they already know i’m a little crazy. Maybe its because they see me running in the rain, the snow, the cold, the heat .. and very early in the mornings .. then they see me falling over in my front yard after the really hot long runs .. or maybe its me coming back to the house covered in sweat, bleeding around the waist from the chaffing .. blood covered shoes from toes or heals bleeding .. it could be any of that. Regardless, they know i’m a runner.
As always with my really long runs, I have a story to share from today. I’ve been committing myself to staying hydrated as best as I can, so I thought I’d be ahead of the game and take $3.50 ($2.50 in change and a single dollar bill) with me, tied up in the normal baggy in the back of my running shorts with my ipod shuffle in the ‘zipped’ part of the shorts. I also packed 2 gels and toilet paper (you never know..) in the other pockets and headed out. I guess the baggy that I packed the money in somehow either had or got a hole in it .. I heard the change bouncing as I was running in the first 3 or 4 miles, and didn’t think anything of it. I stopped at mile 6 to get a water because you never know whats ahead, reached in my pocket and found that I only had $1.50 left .. $2.00 in quarters bounced OUT OF MY ZIPPED POCKET!!! I have to wonder if I had the pocket closed all the way or not, I guess I didn’t .. so I passed on getting water at this point knowing that I could stop about 8 miles ahead at the shopping center in Trexlertown, I figured I could make it. So I just about finish my 30 oz. water that I carry with me when I got to the shopping center, reached in my pocket, and all I had left was a dollar bill .. and the water machine required $1.25 … I was in trouble. That was the point I realized there was a hole in the bag.. I WAS SO MAD!
So I got a little concerned since I didn’t have enough money to get water at any vending machine in my area (its a pricey area), but thought to myself that I could get water at the Weis markets outside dispenser back on route 100. There were two issues, the first being that the machine doesn’t take bills, the second being that its another 5-6 miles ahead yet and I had abou 4oz of water left and was feeling dehydrated already. I had to deal with it, so I just kept going, thinking to myself how I can get change for the water machine … sure enough, the ‘Laser Car Wash’ was coming up on my right hand side about 1 mile up the road. I stopped to see if they used change or tokens, and sure enough they used change, but the change machine was giving me a hard time because my dollar was soaking wet … but after some diligence, it took it, and gave me 4 quarters (which I packed in the baggy with my ipod) .. problem #1 solved. Now it was making it another bunch of miles with being dehydrated, I just sucked it up, put my head down and did it .. next thing I know the Weis was coming up on my left hand side. I stopped, got water, and slammed almost 16 oz of it in one shot.. it felt so good. I was easily able to finish my run after that … who would’ve thought I would have such a drama occur during my run??
On day 2 of my second vacation of the summer tomorrow, I plan to get another 12 miles in prior to driving to Connecticut for the rest of the weekend… I won’t get up quite so early as this morning since i’m off from work and its only 12 miles, but i’ve worked on building my courses in Groton, CT for the weekend as well… (you know, thats a priority). It’ll be nice running some different courses and terrain, but I could get lost, so I need to stick on the main roads.
Other than that, i’m healing up and feeling good. I seem to be addicted again to Fruity Pebbles, E’ggo waffles and ice cream. Thats about all I eat nowadays, that and gatorade and some fat free fig newtons .. so its off to eat. I hope to write before I leave for the weekend.. we’ll see.