I walked out of the door at 6:40 am on Saturday, fueled with a granola bar and half a banana, ready to take on 13 miles of road. It was humid and already 81 degrees, but the weather felt tolerable (you know there's a problem when you start calling 81 degrees "cool") I meandered across the street, took a deep breath, and tapped the start button on my watch. I have grown to cherish my Saturday long runs; I'm in love with the long solitude, the sunrise, and the challenge of distance. I didn't seem to mind that my legs were burning with lactic acid left over from Friday's 7.5 mile workout (see workout below).
About 4 miles in, a cramp began to take a hold of my stomach. My thoughts immediately shifted to my first Olympic distance triathlon, when I walk-ran the first 3 miles and was in the most pain of my life. I thought also about Tuscaloosa just 3 months ago, and how hot it was that day. "Well, at least it isn't 90 degrees yet..." I thought, trying to find some positive light. Then I remembered an article I read about a world champion triathlete. The article said that the triathlete was having stomach problems every time he raced, so once a month he would fill his stomach with Mexican food and then go out for a run. He said that his stomach "blew up" as it did during his races, and he learned to mentally cope and to push through the discomfort. Talk about training outside the box. So, to apply this to my current situation, I decided that I was happy that my stomach felt like it was going to explode. It was going to give me a mental edge in the upcoming fall racing season. But as I neared my 6.5 mile turnaround, I realized that the rest of this run was going to be really uncomfortable. If I ran just another half a mile, there was a water fountain and a bathroom in downtown Dunedin. I decided that I had suffered enough, and ran the extra half a mile.
Feeling better, I made the turn for home in good spirits. After passing Curlew, (my 4 miles to go landmark) a smile spread across my face. Another long run down! However, I met a new obstacle. I heard this voice: "Hey! Are you going to keep running south? I have 59 miles to go, do you mind if I follow you?" My head swiveled to my right, and I saw and old, sun-shriveled man in orange swimming trunks from the 80's and a pair of flip flops. I laughed. 59 miles? He must be joking, he's wearing flip flops. I kept running, and I threw a "yeah" as an answer to appease him. But then suddenly, the man was running beside me. He went on to tell me that he had been running since 2 am that morning, and that he had started in Madeira beach. He was planning on covering 75 miles that day. He talked about how he runs over 200 miles a week, and told me several times to Google "flip flop man" to learn more about him. (he later told me he has Alziemer's, so that's why he repeated himself a lot) His mouth moved just as quickly as his flip-flop clad feet; he talked about how he didn't quite get the Guiness World Record for miles in 6 days, how he was 66 years old, and that he always runs shirtless and without sunscreen, even in the winter. Although I was very weirded out, he did help me keep my mind off of the fatigue settling into my legs. The man kept running ahead of me and zig-zagging across the trail, apparently trying to avoid the sun the best he could. He kept telling me how I was running much faster than he usually does, and that he should probably slow down, but he kept sprinting ahead of me. I was getting angry because I was trying to keep up with him, and I was getting tired and didn't need to run fast on my LSD (long slow distance) day. He later admitted he "doesn't usually run this fast" and felt like he "needed to impress" me. Ew. Weird.
He finally dropped off my pace by Crystal Beach, and I had just half a mile left to hammer out. I swear, anything and everything can happen when you're out there for almost 2 hours (time: 1:52:03). It was definitely an eventful run, and a mile more than I had planned. Good thing next week is a cut back week.
Friday's workout (it's a good one!)
10 minutes marathon pace
2 minute jog
8 minutes half-marathon pace
4 minute jog
6 minutes 10K pace
6 minute jog
4 minutes 5K pace
8 minute jog
2 minutes mile pace
10 minute jog/cooldown
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