Notes:
What a surprise, 22 miles is harder then 20
miles. This was the hardest thing I've done. After the last 20 miler I was
feeling pretty good. After this one I was about as close to giving up this crazy
running thing, as I have ever been. I had a tone of work to do so I did not blog
my run yesterday. But that's good, because I have had a day to recover, my body,
and my spirit. I might be being a bit over dramatic, but I will say this was a
very difficult run to finish. I almost didn't.
From Weather.com I learned that I had a window from 8:00am to 12pm to
miss the snow. So I managed to get my self together and hit the road just before
9:00am. It was 12f, and not very windy. Which was nice. The first 2 miles were
pretty hellish, There was no wind, but once I got the main road, the passing
traffic, kicked up enough wind to bring up the wind chill. I was so cold that I
came very close to turning around. Buy the time I hit my first hill, around 3
miles in I was warmed up enough to begging enjoying the run. From 3 miles to 11
miles thing continued smoothly, I was slowly building a lead on my "Virtual
Partner", by 10 miles in I was about 500feet or so ahead and still feeling
pretty confident.
At 11 miles in I slowed to a walk to call my wife and let her know I was
Ok, This brake maybe lasted 3 minutes, but in hindsight I think this is were
things got hard. In the last 11 miles, because I was running, and
relatively warm I had not noticed that the wind had picked up. It was now
getting down to the single digits with the wind chill, and I during my phone
brake, my sweat had begun to freeze. Once I kicked it back into gear, by the
time I warmed up, I was had hit 13.1 miles. At 1:55:55. Which was a pretty good,
only 5 minutes under my Race time from the Detroit Half Marathon back in
October. At this point I was still feeling pretty strong, It wisent until about
mile 16 that that I started to feel the burn.
I have come to think as 16 miles as "The Wall" hopefully as I get more
experienced with long runs the wall will be pushed back. But not yet. The colder
temperatures, combined with several late run hills made "The Wall" that much
more painful. Some ware in the middle of mile 17 I made another mistake, and
stopped for a moment. Almost instantly I was freezing again. And getting my legs
moving again was a real effort. About a mile later I passed several kids
sledding, this acted as a bit of a spirit lifter. And I began to have hope that
the end was near. Someware in these last few
miles I began to realize that I had tears in my eyes, I am pretty sure that it
was just from the wind, but I would not be surprised if they rose form a deeper
place. I Always know when I am mentally fatigued when I beginning chanting. "5
more miles... 5 more miles... " ect.. I began this ritual at around 8 miles, and
was still doing when I saw my wife's care waiting for me at mile 22. There was
one last problem however, What I though was mile 22, was only 21.25. So with a
brief message, I ran right past here, and down the block to finish the last .75.
It turns out that that last 3/4 of a mile was the hardest. I think it was just
because I know that the nice warm car was just around the corner, and I could go
back to it. with only .25 left I actually stopped on the side of the road, and
decided to stop. But my oppressiveness saved me, and forced me to move my legs,
and I managed to finish.
About 2 minutes after I was in the car it began to snow....
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