April: 20 miler for Saturdays long run

COVID-19, “ The Rona Era”

It’s April. It’s birthday month plus two week celebration. April 1st was on a Friday. I taught class, had meetings, and the local PBS station came to my house to film me running. WBGH, the local station in Boston, wants to do a segment on running and the lack of inclusion in running. We talked about my research, race, and the Boston Marathon. On Friday, when Emily and Meghan from the station came to my house, they filmed me running. I did get a run in but it wasn’t the same.

But I still needed to do some serious running. The Boston Marathon will be here in 17 days. I haven’t had a 20 mile run yet. Last weekend when I was in Phoenix, that was the 20 miler weekend.

The longest I’ve run in training was 16 miles. The plan on Saturday was to run between 18-20 miles.

I know the Minuteman trail was the place to run. It was 10 miles out and back, 20 total. The last time I ran 20 miles was three years ago in Paris. This would be a dress rehearsal run for Boston.

It was a bit breezy when I started, late this morning. I arrived at 7a.m. My goal was to start at 6a.m. I figured it would be me at least three hours. I wanted to be finish around 9 instead of 10a.m. But I was here. I could check that off.

Running on the Boston Marathon route and all over the city, I forgot how painfully boring this path is. Spy pond and see the virus art in the trees made it a bit better. This was at the start of my run.

I tried to take in all the nature things around me. I did start off slow, which is good. Activity on the bike path was sparse, at first. It took me a while to get a g good pace.

I would see runners, at first mostly men. Some of the women I saw sported BAA outer wear. The first mile marker I saw was at mile 5. I thought, great 5 more to go and I’m feeling great.

While running I saw groups of Asian American runners and bikers. Access to green , running, and bike space are different in different neighborhoods. Race and social class intersect with that as well. I made note.

This is a bike path and there were a lot of riders on it. Groups of men, couples, families. It got busy quickly as the day was getting later and nicer.

I remembered what I learned in marathon training. Fuel up every 5k so your body can keep going. My mistake was 1. Not properly fueling up every 5k. I should have brought more snacks and water with me, which I didn’t. I ended up running out of fuel to run. I was so dehydrated. I finished all my water and I didn’t bring enough gu or the “right” fuel replacements.

2. My cell phone sucks. Need a new one before race day. The battery lasted for 16 miles before all the juice was gone. I had to run 4 miles, without fuel, no music, and my energy levels were low.

I did a mixture of walk and run.

The irony of all of this, my body felt good. After running 20 miles I felt strong. I did make a note to do more back strengthening exercises and get better socks. Others my knee and pelvic floor did not flare up. What slowed me down was the lack of fuel not body aches..

.