Happy Trails

Today's run was through Shelby Farms. From the kite area through the blue WRT, then the Tour for a total of 17.35 miles (3h 41m). This was my first long run since Tour d'Esprit and, all in all, it felt good. For the last 3 miles, I slipped on my Five Fingers and had no problems and no pain. The VFF's slowed me down a bit, but I guess I will get used to them soon enough.

My biggest problem was around mile 10. Usually, I don't hit any walls until well past 20 miles, but today I ran smack dab into one in half that distance. I kept running, albeit at a much slower pace. My body started shaking and I felt nauseous. Thoughts of quiting ran willie-nillie through my head. I knew that I was hitting a wall and that I best keep moving. In past runs, I always stopped running at this point until I felt better...which means my time is screwed and my muscles start to freeze up. So, keep moving...keep moving...keep moving I did. I grabbed some Clif Shot Blocks from my Camelbak and drained one of my hand held bottles. Within a mile or so, I felt the best that I had the entire run. My pace increased and I started flying through the woods again.

Once again, I hit the pause button on my Garmin and forgot to turn it back on until I was a half mile up the trail. So, I figured the missing distance using Google Earth and came up with 0.51 miles. Adding this to the 17.35, we get the grand total of 17.86 miles (check my math because I was edumacated in Mississippi!).

Now it's time to taper for this weekend's Midsouth Marathon. I will run at least two 5 milers between Monday and Wednesday and then rest. I have never run a marathon, so I am unsure what to expect. My previous long training runs suggest that I will finish between 4 and 5 hours, if all goes well. My plan is to go easy (11-12 min miles) through mile 18 and then attempt to finish out with a pace under 10 min per mile.