Last long run

(Yesterday: 50 min jog)

Well, technically, the marathon will be the last long run because I'm running another one three weeks later--yep, going back to my hometown for a visit!   Pumped!  The race in two weeks will be "easy" (the weather will probably be sort of gross), just another long long run, and hopefully I will be lucky with the race in five weeks--it'll be a flatter route, too.

Anyway, we'd planned to go on post to run a flatter route with actual pedestrian infrastructure, but we slept in, it got hot, etc, so we decided to stay close to home and at least have more shade.  There is a semi-local road that has two lanes on each side, and is shady and relatively flat, so we figured that it would serve well for the meat of the run.

The weather felt surprisingly comfortable.  The humidity was lower this week and there was a nice breeze.  We did a short loop with the dog, and then we set out.  I've recently found a nicer way into town: one big but gentle hill instead of a series of shorter sharper ones, and that worked well.  There's also a cool part by a very long hedge--and on a sidewalk, too!  I love sidewalks.  I wish I had more of them at my disposal.

I think I felt good until about an hour into the run.  The road we'd pinned our hopes on had more traffic than expected, so we ended up running on the shoulder a lot.  Some cars moved over for us, but I'm not a very trusting person, and I kept going on the shoulder, just in case. This was a thick layer of pine needles, and it sucked.  It sucks.  This was precisely what we'd hoped to avoid by going on post.  Oh, well.   So we changed our plan: run through a golf community to a gentle trail around a reservoir with public facilities where we could fill up our water containers at least.  Road running had already crapped the bed.

The reservoir trail was fine--it was reasonably flat and well-packed, especially compared to the trails closer to our house.  We met some friends there and a guy who offered us a ride home, and we got more water.  We decided to try some new-to-us trails leading away from the reservoir loop, but these crapped the bed too.  Marble-shaped gravel does count as a trail, but a sidewalk alongside a busy road that ends after 1/4 a mile, forcing us back onto the shoulder, does not.  It was very disappointing, plus hilly, and not shaded.  My husband started to run out of steam so we decided not to attempt another detour to check out another probably disappointing "trail".  Hey, my hopes aren't high: I don't care about how much nature there is, but a complete sidewalk would thrill me.  I should be grateful that there is some infrastructure, though, and it's part of an ongoing process to link up more things. 

Anyway, I met my own Paris maybe a mile later.  Too much shoulder, too much uneven spongy sliding pine needles--my left Achilles started to twinge badly, and this was disappointing because it hasn't been an issue for a while.  The terrain was just wrong--I've noticed that the problem crops up when the footing is bad.   I told my husband that I couldn't go on the shoulder anymore and these cars would just have to move.  And they did!  Maybe I looked that fed up.  Fortunately, it was maybe just another 1/4 of a mile until we were able to get onto a quieter road, and then I perked up.  My husband was tired, though (he's been sick), and the pace was suffering, so we changed our plan again.

We ran to the town closest to our house, bought lunch, ate some of it while sitting in a nearby park, and ate the rest of it while strolling the 3 miles back home.   Total 19 miles, 16 of them running, maybe 10-12 of them actual road.  Whatever!  For future reference, caprese salad, as tasty as it is, kind of sits heavily on the stomach.  However, aside from the twinges from way too much lateral motion and bad footing, I felt surprisingly comfortable.  It was about 18-24 C, sunny, but not humid...I sweated a fair bit, but it evaporated and kept me comfy like sweat is supposed to.  I don't feel too badly off now.  My legs are ok.  It's like I ran just for an hour or something.  A good sign.

Plus my new shoes felt super!

And now I have a glass full of wine, 1/2 a pizza, and a replay of the Boston Marathon--I've already heard the result, and I think it's going to be very emotional!