Final Long Run

Well after a delay, I finally got in my final long run of this marathon training cycle. It was a challenging 23 miler in the rain. I wanted to run the marathon course on Sunday, but held off because of the rain. This morning, I ran back at my parents house because I had no choice. This is now my second longest run ever. It is second only to my first marathon.

I had hoped things would clear up, but they obviously didn't. After running for over a week straight, it was nice to have two straight days off. That allowed my body to recover, although I was quite slow and stagnant early on.

I knew this would be a difficult run requiring multiple loops. I decided to start by combining some of the toughest track routes together. I parked near the center of town. I first ran the Flurer's loop. That is a difficult and hilly loop around the old folks home, Gracedale. There is actually a shorter Gracedale loop as well. The Flurer's loop adds an extra challenging hill.

I wore my rain jacket for this first loop. The rain was fairly hard when I started, but quickly died down. I was way too hot. As soon as this loop finished, around 4.5 miles, I took off my jacket and changed to a short sleeve shirt and compression sleeves. At the beginning of the route, I had to use the bathroom. Towards the end of the loop, I had to make a second longer trip. Luckily, there is a portable bathroom at a baseball field near the town circle.

After the first loop, I decided to add track's most challenging run. That is Red Bridge. It consists of a very steep climb to near where the Andretti's live. There's then a steep descent and another ascent. I added a longer and flat section to this run too. The first hill didn't bother me much, but the second hill was a struggle.

I was a bit worried as I cruised downhill. My big toe started to get sore. I was hoping that it wasn't fractured. I think I irritated it while running over rocks during the trail run last week. After a little while, the pain went away though.

I felt pretty good as I headed back to the car. I was just past the halfway point when I got there. Even though I was feeling okay, I was still questioning how I'd be able to run 11 more miles. This always seems to be the case at the midway point, but I always seem to survive.

I decided to run the Flurer's loop again. I was out of ideas on where to run. As I got to Flurer's, after struggling a little uphill, I decided to run out on Route 946. I planned to do this for a mile and then come back. This would add some flat distance. The rain really started to pickup at this point. I cruised along and ran my fastest miles during this portion. I passed into Lower Nazareth Township and nearly headed all the way to my parents house. This was the 4th township that I ran through, plus the borough of Nazareth.

Getting up the last hill by Gracedale was somewhat challenging. It is amazing how much tougher these hills seemed during track though. They certainly aren't easy, but I'm in the best shape of my life. Adding hills to my workouts has really paid off too.

The hill was somewhat tough, but it was the rain that was becoming a pain. My shirt was pretty good against the rain, but after over 10 miles with it on, it became soaked. My nipples were starting to bother me. When I got back to the car again, I was at mile 19.4. I changed out of my shirt and put on a dry one. I put my jacket back on too. I knew I'd be hot, but figured it didn't matter for this final stretch.

I had less than 4 miles to go. I wasn't really sure where to run though. I went back towards the high school. I didn't want anything to do with hills, so it was tough to find a route. I thought about going east past the high school, but as I got to the road I wanted to take, I could see the shoulder was flooded. It was a steeper downhill too, compared to what I remembered. I decided instead to run through the flat neighborhood around the school. I was struggling a bit at this point, but I weaved in and out, adding miles to the route.

There was one more climb from the school back into town. It isn't too steep, but it was tough this late in the run. I got up it and was relieved. I then went down one road a couple blocks to added some distance. I was inside the final mile and needed to cover a little more ground. I ran back through the circle in town and finished up just over a block away. I was sore, but actually felt like I could've run another mile or so.

I think running hills rather than flat was a big help. It kept my pace slow. I run too fast on flats and often somewhat out of control. The hills didn't beat me up as much as I thought that would. I was certainly very sore, but actually seemed better than some of my other runs. It was certainly better than last week's concrete sidewalk heavy 18 miler.

I feel like I'm ready for the marathon. I have three runs of 20+ miles under my belt. I actually want to get even more of these as I train for my fall marathon. I want to become so used to them that I can actually speed up at the end of the marathon, rather than hang on.

It would've been nice to run the actual course and use my times to come up with a game plan. This was still a very good and challenging workout. I feel as though I'm ready for the race. The hill work I've been putting in has been huge. I'm so much stronger than I was before my fall marathon. It is like night and day.

I was relieved that they cut me from work this evening. I was pretty sore and would've struggled, even with a short shift. I'm not sure how to run the rest of the week. I want to get in all my runs, so I can run over 60 miles. I was hoping to just swap easy and hard days around. That might be tough though. Tomorrow's run would wind up being 10 miles. I'm likely going to run on a trail, so my legs don't take a pounding. I'll shoot for 10 miles, but really I'll just see how I feel. It'll be tough too because it is supposed to still rain in the morning. We shall see.

23 miles - 3:12:35 (8:22 pace)