It Was Just a Ten Mile Run

A week ago, our Team in Training group ran twenty miles. Yes, I mean every individual person training for the full marathon ran twenty miles each (I didn’t want you to think that I meant that our individual miles added up to twenty overall). So when we showed up last Saturday for our weekly long run, we were excited to be running only ten miles. Having run ten miles before; having experienced running in the rain, cold, and heavy wind; feeling like running pros; we were all laughing at each other because it was just a ten mile run. We didn’t even need maps or directions to find our way. This would be a piece of cake!

A few months ago I would have considered a ten mile run to be a long run, the type of run that would make me tired, sore and unable to move for days; however, Saturday’s run felt like a regular short run. As is typical for me, I overdressed for the run because it was supposed to be really cold and rainy and I don’t like being cold or wet, but something funny happened.

(No, I don't mean the person in the picture above.) After half a mile, I realized that it was too hot to be wearing a jacket, so I took off my jacket while running and carried it for three miles until the first water stop, and then I left my jacket there. You heard that right, even though I'm the type of person who doesn't wear shorts during the summer unless it's above 80 degrees, sunny, and humid, I felt warm and I wasn’t even sick (that is if you don't think that running ten miles is sick).

At the halfway point (or mile five, whichever sounds shorter) I ate a gel pack. Well, it was more like I drank a gel pack, or did I eat it? Can you really eat something that isn’t exactly solid? Can you drink something that isn’t really a liquid? These are the types of mind-numbing things I was pondering during this run. I was also picturing how, if I didnt' wear so many layers of clothing or carry so many water bottles with me during the race, I could end up running really fast, so fast that I would pass everyone and end up winning the race.

The underdog wins the race!

Anyway, nothing exciting happened during this run, it was only ten miles what could happen? Unless you count that it started to get windy and cold with four miles left to run. That’s when I sped up to pick up the jacket I so carelessly discarded at the beginning of the run. Boy! Was I glad to have that jacket then. I quickly fetched the jacket, put it on, and was able to stay warm and dry for the remainder of the run. All in all, it was a rather uneventful run.

This was the last long run before the marathon. Now we start to taper our miles with our longest run between now and the marathon being a whopping six miles. We even have a mere three mile run next Monday—I’m not sure I would even call a three mile run, a run anymore. That’s what training for a marathon does to you; you lose any sense of what is normal.

In about two weeks, sometime after the marathon, I will start to regain my sense of normalcy. That's when I start training for my first triathlon, just kidding, I think.