The Long Run

I have always had trouble with running. I grew up hating to run, mainly because of my soccer coach (more on that later).

As I am training for the Bay State Marathon, I am having some difficulty with long runs. A long run for me consists of anything over 12 miles. Before IMLP, my longest run was somewhere around 17 miles. Since late August, I have been focusing on my running, knowing it may be able to take me to the promised land.

The last two weeks of training looked liked this:

• Week of September 8th: 40.5 miles (with a long run of 15.1 miles)
• Week of September 15th: 39.8 miles (with a long run of 18.1 miles)

Now back to my 15.1 mile long run. It was supposed to rain all day and I was visiting with my family. I thought I would skip the morning 16 mile run, do it later in day, mainly because I am afraid of bad weather. In addition, my dad just made me a great breakfast around 8:00. His famous breakfast included 2 eggs over easy, home fries and wheat bread.

Here's where the fun begins. My younger sister, who may be more competitive than me, convinced me that the rain was going to hold off and to stop being a sissy. She just had her third baby and is trying to get into shape. I figured this would be a great opportunity to run with someone for 6 to 8 miles and finish off the rest on my own. For anyone who has run a lot on their own, company every now and then is a welcome camodity (or so I thought).

Before long workouts, I usually have a set nutrition plan. I time my food and know what I need to get through the event. Eating eggs, potatoes and juice are NOT part of this plan. Also, not drinking much before a 2 hour run is not a wise decision. Mistake #1!

I met my sister at the top of the driveway. While I waited for my Timex GPS to calibrate, my sister took off. I thought "no problem"...I'm in shape, she had a baby 5 months ago, I'll catch her. It took about 3 minutes for the GPS to calibrate and I was off and running.

Now when I say "off and running", I mean OFF AND RUNNING. Literally, chasing my sister for 3 miles. Think of the dog chasing the rabbit at the race track. I finally caught her at mile 3, having to run at a 6:57 pace to do so. Not the way you want to start off your long run. Mistake #2!

My sister and I ran the next 8 miles together. She, trying to get in shape, kept pushing the pace for 6 full miles. My pace for the 8 miles was around 7:20/mile. Again, not a good idea with 8 more miles to go. Mistake #3!

To add more enjoyment to the run, the ketchup from my breakfast, along with the orange juice, was burning my chest. Is was as if I had acid reflux going on.

As my sister made her way back home, I turned around and embarked on the "highway to hell." Being a bit competitive myself (imagine that), I kept up the 7:20 pace for a few more miles as my throat burned, my stomach churned and my mind began playing games with me. Mistake #4!

All of the mstakes led to things falling apart at mile 12. My body began telling my mind to go screw itself. First problem, I was 3 miles from home. Second problem, the rain that was coming turned into 80 degree heat with a ton of humidity. Third problem, out of drinks and gels. Man, I really screwed this up.

The last 3 miles consisted of a run-walk-run episode. No rhyme or reason to either, just survive. Things got so bad for me, I actually took of my shirt. This is something I am usually opposed to (for me, anyway), but I was over heating and trying to make it home.

I finally did make it home. As usual, I was sick to my stomach do to my nutrition, or lack there of.

Lesson learned...the hard way.