Running With Jack

This morning was a cool 14C/57F as I headed out at 6:00 a.m. this morning for my last long run before my marathon on September 10th. Luckily the odd pain in the back of my foot had disappeared after a day of rest yesterday, so I was ready to go.

Rather then doing another back to back I decided to do a slightly longer long run, hopefully about 4 hours. Anyway this was on my mind as I drove to the neighboring town of Weingarten where my hilly trail is located.

As I started running I was at first concerned that the pain in the Achilles area of my right foot would act up again, but as it turned out this was never an issue. Anyway I did two 1½ hour loops, then headed around for part of a third. By this time my quads were showing the first signs of resentment of what of what I was putting them through, but I pushed on. After 3½ hours my legs were getting tired, but worse was the mental battle going on inside – I wanted to quit, to stop running and just walk back to the car. But I kept telling myself this was the last long run for a few weeks, I had to finish up!

Finally after what really felt like an eternity, my watch indicated that I had run for 3 hours and 45 minutes, which meant I could come down off the mountain and return to my car. I arrived 16 minutes later for a total long run of 4:01:00 (around 36K/22.5M). Mission accomplished, but man was it mentally challenging this time.

For the record this was 4 hours of straight running, no walk breaks, only 2 short pee-breaks. The only food/drink that I consumed was 2 ½ liters of isotonic sports drink.

After a cool-down walk and some stretching I headed back to the house for a shower, second breakfast, and some time off the feet. Now, 10 hours later, my legs are tired, but no aches, pains or complications.

So now its taper time, I think I won’t have too much problem with this, as I have been pushing my body harder for this race than for any other race (including my ultras) and it’s time to take a step back and rest a little. Next Sunday I have a half-marathon, but I don’t necessarily have to “race” it – but we’ll see, a new PR would be fun too.