Last Long Run of February
COVID-19, “The Rona Era”
I have 18 miles on deck to run today. This would be the longest miles run since Boston Marathon last year. Of course today the weather temperature is below freezing, lucky me. It’s 22 degrees out. To prepare, I got a new fuel vest to try, a garmin watch, and some more energy gels. My plan, like always is to run on the Boston Marathon course. I wasn’t sure how long 18 miles would take me and how my body would react.
From mile 20, Heartbreakers Running Company, to Natick is nine miles. The plan is to do an out and back. I arrived at mile 20 at 6:30a.m. to get it started. Around 6sih, it is getting light. No headlight needed. Because of the cold and early morning, it was quiet on the course. Normally I’ll see a lot of people running early. Not this morning. When I started, I saw one guy run past me with his basketball jersey on.
As I started to run, I did see a couple of people, all men running. I reminded myself to break everything down in 5ks. I had to run 6-5ks.
I can telling that I am getting stronger and training is working when I started running up the Wellesly Hills. I was able to run up them further than I had before without stopping. I wasn’t as tired. I was cautious because parts of the sidewalks were not shoveled and it was icy. After passing the firehouse, I had to run on the street. I wanted to make sure I didn’t get hit by cars.
I was doing good until my strava started acted up on me. I’ll be honest, I don’t fully know how to work this new watch yet. That was the messy part. At every 5k, I made sure to gel and drink water. But drinking water was a challenge. Because it was below freezing, my water froze and I couldn’t get to it. The other messy, I need to get a pedicure. My toe nails hurt like hell.
It was pretty quiet while running. Wellesly Hills, check. Past Wellesly College and into Natick. My strava had me at 9.02 miles in Natick when I turned around. Even though, my technically was crazy, I knew I was on track for 18 miles. I saw on the Boston Marathon route, the mile markers.
Running is a head game and I’m not winning. I was annoyed when my music stopped or my phone told me it had stopped tracking when I was still moving. I should have said F it, and kept running. Long story short, they are all distractions. I need to block that noise.
As I was heading back to mile 20, I saw all the people. I think it might have been after 8a.m. I feel I was on the course for three and half hours, to run 18 miles. Maybe 3 hours and 45mins. I know I need to work on my time to have a faster pace.
My knees felt good. At one point, they felt tight. I might have put more stress on them because I was cautious of the ice and snow.
I had to smile when I saw two black runners from our running community and they both acknowledge me and gave me a hand slap to keep on going. There is joy and smiles on this 18 miles of pavement.
Tomorrow, rest up. Because Monday starts more mileage. 62 days until Big Sur.
