Filed under: Longest Run Ever, The Race, Training Runs | Tags: fight, long run, marathon, running, running routes, struggle
….also known as the longest run before the marathon. Done. Check. Complete. Twenty miles. I ran…twenty miles. I RAN TWENTY MILES. Remember that line in Lord of the Rings when Sam asks, “How far to the nearest crossing?” and Merry replies, “Brandywine Bridge! Twenty miles!” and you breathe this sigh of relief, because you know they’re safe for a little while. Well guess what I RAN THAT today.
I also ran it sick, and I ran it on five hours of sleep. I had a late gig the night before, but I set my clock for five AM, pulled on my clothes, ate my usual pre-run snack, and was out the door at 6 AM. It took me a while. I was slower than I intended, doing a loop from my house, around the entire Charles River path, an extra mini-loop, and back. It took nearly four hours, though I actually added a half mile by accident (twenty POINT FIVE! OH!) and I stopped to use a porta-potty, so that added a few minutes.
Over twenty-four hours have passed, and I’m still sick and still tired – my nose is so stuffed up that I’m breathing through my mouth – but I want to write about this before the feelings become stale. I want to remember everything about it. The solitude of the morning, the sound of feet padding steadily along the path, pigeons cooing, water rippling. The gradual rise and bustling of the city, and the appearance of more runners on the path, some doing long runs, some just out for their morning jogs. The changing scenery, slowly – trees to low houses to college campuses to tall, downtown skyscrapers and then back again. The utter relief of seeing the last mile. The last stop sign. The last hill. The last block.
I think it was when I did my first 15-miler that I first experienced a strange sensation of wanting to cry during a run. Once again I felt it, and I still couldn’t tell you what it was. Exhaustion? Emotion? Both? I don’t know. I just know that I think it was mile 19 and I felt an overwhelming rush of…something. As if the physical and emotional sides to my body had melded together into one inseparable thing. It wasn’t a physical battle, though. It was a mental one. One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. And things hurt, but not unhealthily, not badly.
And now it’s done. The longest run before the marathon. A forty-mile week. My training is at its end. This week begins my first taper, with a 12-mile long run, and then an 8-mile long run the next week. I still have to be vigilant, obviously. Eat right. Sleep right. Put in the shorter runs. Buy the stupid plane ticket, already.
Nine months have nearly passed. There is a question lurking. But I can’t answer it yet. Not until it’s done.
3 weeks until twenty-six-point-two.
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happy birthday
Comment by Beren April 13, 2010 @ 8:25 pmI started following your blog way back when. I hadn’t been running for heartbreak then. I still found your writings exceptional and I understood the pain behind it all. Now, my life has changed and I am running because of heartbreak, and I thank you. You are truly a motivation more than you can imagine!
Comment by Fara April 15, 2010 @ 10:34 amFor what it’s worth, I’m so sorry for what you are going through and glad that my writings can be a comfort to you in your pain. Keep running. Through all the ups and downs, it’s one constant that will never leave you. Even on my most terrible days, I could look at my training plan and say: this is what I have to do. Keep running. It’ll keep you strong.
Comment by runningthroughheartbreak April 15, 2010 @ 8:54 pm