Start time: 1/14/12, 8:00am
Location: National Mall, Foxhall Rd, Tenley Circle, Mass Ave, Mt. Vernon Trail
Distance: 18 miles
Average pace: 11:09min/mile
Total Miles For January: 52 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 52 miles
Current Shoes: 85 miles

Old Greg would have probably been trying to speed up a lot on this run, looking at his watch, and worried about mile splits.

New Greg, however, is not that concerned about finish times and more concerned about the enjoyment overall. Nothing wrong with Old Greg’s strategy (it’s a lot of fun to try and break your PR, and do really well, and so on; I respect people a great deal who are going for it and perhaps for another race I’ll re-embrace it) but at least for now, it’s not a high priority, or in fact much of a priority at all. Makes a big difference.

The run itself was good; Foxhall Road kicked my butt (it’s about a 400 foot climb over its length) but in a good way, and the company was nice. Rolled my ankle a tiny bit at mile 11 (oops) but it held up just fine for the rest of the run.

Also, it’s really cold out. Very glad I had that extra jacket on.

Start time: 8/29/09, 6:00am
Location: Hains Point, Mt. Vernon Trail, Georgetown, Rock Creek Park, National Mall
Distance: 18 miles
Average pace: 10:40min/mile
Total Miles For August: 110 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 569 miles
Humidity: 88%

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3129127

Start time: 3/7/09,10:30am
Location: SW Waterfront, National Mall, Georgetown, Capital Crescent Trail
Distance: 18 miles
Average pace: 9:34min/mile
Total Miles For March: 24 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 141 miles

Oooooof. Be careful what you wish for, indeed.

After all the snow and ice of the last week or so, it seems the DC area’s collective thought process did indeed bring a warm front into the area. I’m not entirely sure, with 20/20 hindsight, that 74 degrees and humid was the way to go about it. I like to think that it was a combination of the temperature jump and new mileage that made me start face-planting by the end, but we shall see. I ran the old AIDS Marathon 18-miler course, which starts at 4th and I Streets SW, heads through the National Mall, across the Georgetown Waterfront, then on the Cap Crescent trail all the way to Maryland before heading back. It was a nice (if slightly hilly on the Cap Crescent heading outbound) course, and I haven’t run it since fall 2007. For a run that I did entirely on my own, it was comforting to have those old memories with me.

That said, once I got back into Georgetown, I was definitely running out of gas. When I got all the way to Constitution and 20th Street (finishing up mile 15) I just felt about ready to quit; so, for miles 16-18, I took a 1 minute walk break at the start of each mile, and that seemed to help a bit. At least I didn’t lose any additional ground doing so, right?

Interesting, it was the same finishing time for my 18-miler (or within an average of 1 second per mile) for 2008, which was a nice relief. 2007’s was about 12 seconds per mile faster, and in really hot weather to boot, though. Happily, I demolished 2006 and earlier’s paces…

And hey, on the bright side, the bruise on my leg didn’t bother me at all while running. Woohoo!

(8:42, 8:05, 9:02, 8:47, 9:23, 9:17, 9:21, 9:25, 9:52, 8:56, 9:18, 9:42, 9:52, 10:00, 10:53, 10:46, 10:06, 10:43)

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2613871

Start Time: 8/16/08, 6:30am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 18 miles
Average Pace: 9:33min/mile
Total Miles For August: 53 miles

18! Always a good distance to hit, because to quote the old chestnut, “If you can run 18 miles, you can run a marathon.” It was a really small crowd, and most people were only running 13 miles—just me and Laura for the full 18. We were all of a mile and a half out when naturally, nature made a call. I told Laura to go on ahead, and then I hustled to catch her (which explains the jump in miles 2 and 3). The two of us kept going together, but at mile 5 Laura’s knee suddenly hurt very badly and suddenly. We paused for a few seconds, but it seemed to be fine. (Fortunately, at mile 5 we were also right by home base again.) Then, at mile 6.5 it happened again, so she turned around and walked the mile and a half back to start, while I headed on alone.

I picked up the pace a bit at that point (being by myself and all), and it felt really good. I ran out to the Vienna Community Center, filled up my water bottle, popped a salt packet (the sun had come out in full brightness) and then started heading back. Instead of helping, though, the salt packet just made my stomach feel horrible the whole way back. Ugh. To top it off, a combination of very mild dehydration* and not getting much sleep over the the past week caught up with me after I’d finished up mile 16, and the last two were a real struggle to finish. For both of them I ended up taking a walk break along the way to really regroup and get moving again, which helped a lot. Still, not bad otherwise. And I like to think that had I been running with anyone else for those last two miles, I’d have pushed a little harder. But I knew no one else from my group was out there, that portion of the trail was oddly empty, and I just didn’t care.

* — Even after drinking two bottles of water upon finishing, two freezie pops, and a little bit of my vanilla soy protein drink when I got home, the scale said that in-between leaving the house and then getting back I’d dropped 3.5 lbs. Yikes. That is a bit too much in terms of water loss. I think the cool start to the morning made me a little complacent about proper hydration, coupled with not enough Friday preparation.

9:50, 8:46, 8:58, 9:52, 10:06, 10:02, 9:25, 9:12, 8:56, 9:10, 9:18, 9:15, 9:07, 9:28, 9:17, 9:30, 10:44, 10:57

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: 8/5/07, 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)