Start time: 8/26/07, 6:30am
Location: National Mall & Cap Crescent Trail
Distance: 18 miles
Average pace: 9:46min/mile

The moral of this Sunday’s attempted 20-mile run? Some elements of bad runs are avoidable and others are not, so it’s important to figure out which ones are and take the appropriate steps. Unavoidable on Sunday for me was the weather; while nowhere near as bad as Saurday, it was still hot and incredibly humid. At one point I described the run as “carving your way through the air up the trail” and no one disputed that claim. When at mile 2 you already look like you’ve fallen into the river? Not good.

Unfortunately, I made two mistakes that really could have been avoided. The first has to do with the fact that I normally get up about two hours before a long run, which gives me enough time to shower, shave, eat breakfast, and most importantly use the bathroom about 5 times. I’d gotten to bed later than planned on Saturday night, so instead of setting the alarm for 4:30am, I set it for 5am in order to get a little more sleep. The problem was, that meant a couple of less bathroom breaks. I thought I’d be ok… well, no. Around mile 10 I started having an upset stomach, and at mile 14 (where on the Capital Crescent Trail we would turn around for a 6 mile run back to home base) I felt bad enough that I had to stop. And really, an upset stomach can mean so many different things that it’s hard to really diagnose. It wasn’t until I’d stopped for about 15 minutes that I figured out the problem was one that a bathroom would need to solve. Lo and behold, that did the trick.

The second was that after stopping at mile 14, because I thought I was done, I didn’t really keep moving. I stood around and talked with Christa for a bit, waited for the next group to show up, and so forth. So once I did finally start running again… everything was sore and stiff and never really loosened back up. *sigh* At mile 18 I finally gave up and called it a day. So close, and yet so far. Ah well.

Next time? Well, at least it will be a different set of mistakes to make instead. I was pretty mad at myself, partially because I wanted to finish the run out with Paul, Dvora, and Laura, partially because I’d had such a good 18 miler, and partially because so long as I can remember I’ve only had to stop short on 3 long runs over the course of 7 years. At the time on Sunday, it felt like a horrible, horrible defeat.

Live and learn, live and learn.

Start time: 8/23/07, 7:30am
Location: Arlington Boulevard Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:50min/mile

With the 20-miler on Sunday, our normal Thursday tempo run was replaced on the schedule with a 3-mile “EZ” run. Yeah, I can do that just fine. I plotted out a long elaborate route through my neighborhood (a truncated version of my “Clarendon-to-Rosslyn” path up and down Clarendon and Wilson Boulevards), then decided this morning I just didn’t feel like dodging traffic and stuck to Arlington Boulevard instead. A nice run, and even better, the slowest mile was the first one. I can deal with that.

Start time: 8/19/07, 8:00am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 8 miles
Average pace: 8:46min/mile

Today’s run started out well enough; overcast skies, low temperature… in August, no less. Then at the 3.5 mile turn-around, I managed to twist my ankle all the way the heck around as my foot suddenly went perpendicular to my leg. Ouch. Cue Greg swearing loudly several times as he hops up and down on his other foot. Smoooooth.

Then, right as we finished up the run, Paul looks over at me and says, “Hey, you’re bleeding.” Dammit, I put BodyGlide on, but sure enough there was a big smear of blood down the right side of my shirt at nipple height. I washed it off as best as I could, but apparently the other one was feeling left out so it decided to bleed as well. Good god.

(My theory? Once you’ve had the bleeding nipples in a running season, it will take several months for them to truly heal. So, I guess even for short runs it’ll be NipGuards for a while. Yeesh.)

Still, other than all that, a good run, honest!

Start time: 8/5/07, 6:30am
Location: National Mall & Cap Crescent Trail
Distance: 18 miles
Average pace: 9:22min/mile

Phew! Today was a hot day; not quite as bad as yesterday was (where it went over 100, I believe) but still very hot. We caught a break by it not being putrid out, though, and that was a good thing indeed. We headed out and did the first seven miles down near the National Mall; because of the distance and the heat we were supposed to slow down to somewhere around a 9:30. We had a little trouble gaging our speed at first, but felt good. (9:19, 8:52, 9:04, 9:16, 9:29, 8:43, 9:00) Well, aside from some stomach issues I was having, but a trip to the world’s most repulsive portajohn helped a great deal.

From there it was onto the Cap Crescent Trail; Laura dropped back a bit because of stomach cramps, but the remaining four of us pushed on together until 11 miles into the course. (10:00, 9:33, 9:13, 9:37) It was at that point that Dvora and Paul decided to turn around early (Dvora only had a 14 scheduled, Paul wasn’t feeling well) and a couple of seconds later, Dave zoomed off into the distance. At which point it was just me, with seven miles to go. Oh well, good practice for the marathon, right?

At first, I was feeling a little sluggish and tired, and my stomach briefly decided to give me some problems. It was two miles to the turn-around, and a full mile back I was still feeling less than stellar. (9:34, 9:40, 9:53) Then, finally, my second wind kicked in and from there it was smooth sailing all the way back, a great way to end a run feeling energized and strong. (9:35, 9:10, 9:26, 9:14)