Today was my longest run to date – 16 miles. Overall it was a good run – I didn’t suffer the pain I did during my recent 13-mile run, which can be read here; and while I ran it a little slower than I would have liked, I’m overall pleased with it because I ran 16 miles today.
Miles 4-6 were hard because I hit a long stretch (from ATR to the golf course for those of my readers familiar with the base) where I was fighting a strong head wind and then as I turned a corner, a side wind.
An amusing occurance happened at Mile 8, which usually is a lovely mile marker to see because it means I’m nearly done (having completed several 10-mile runs, my body seems to think 10 miles is the finish line). Usually seeing mile marker 8 brings a grin to my face. This time my brain said to my mouth, “Don’t get all excited. We’re only halfway done,” and with that the smile was supressed.
At Mile 10 my body was jumping for joy as this brought me back to my car. My brain kicked in quickly though and admonished my body for being excited as I still had six miles left to run. Dropping my shirt in my car and grabbing a 2nd Gatorade I was off.
The last 6 miles were very hard, I won’t lie. I fought a head wind, a hill, and hell, it was the last 6 miles of a 16-mile run so OF COURSE it was hard! Finishing it felt fantastic though, despite the aches I am feeling now, several hours later. Of course, the most frightening thing is that I’ll have to run an additional 10.2 miles on the day of the race, which is only 5 weeks away. As much as I’ve started to enjoy running again and as excited as I am to run the race so I can say, “I ran the Marine Corps Marathon!!”, I can’t wait for this race to be over so I can return to normal running distances – like 10k. You know, something reasonable…
