I volunteered to help Tom out for the Tim Lambert Memorial Run this morning. I was a course marshal. Because I didn't want to run and then stand around at the race, I opted to get my 16 miles in afterward. The weather looked pretty good anyway.
I always enjoy volunteering. The crowd wasn't too big, so it was pretty easy. We mostly just had to cheer on the runners. Flo was running the 5k. I knew she would win the race in the women's division, I just wondered if she could win the whole thing. She did great. She took second overall and ran under 19 minutes. She wasn't too far behind the top male.
Since the race didn't start until 10 AM and I stayed for the awards ceremony, it took awhile until I got running. That didn't happen until almost noon. I also had to change in a park before running. I wanted to stay off of paved trails and I thought that double out and back segments would be good for my 16 mile run.
I parked along the D&L Trail at Freemansburg. The plan was to go 4 miles out to the east and back, then head 4 more miles out and back to the west. The west is more scenic with Bethlehem Steel and the City of Bethlehem to look at.
I headed out toward the Route 33 Boat Launch from Freemansburg. There are a couple neat, old buildings there. A few trail volunteers were out there working. I was hoping that they would be there when I came back, but they weren't. I guess I wanted some one to know how far I ran.
Early on is so tough mentally. It just seems like you have forever to go. I checked my watch about 6:30 into the run, just to make sure it was working. I went almost a full mile before really looking at it. I tried not to look at it much while running. It would beep every mile and then I'd take a look at the last mile's time. I wasn't concerned at all about pace. Since I was running alone, I just ran what felt relatively easy and comfortable.
This trail is rather quiet. I mostly just saw bikers out there. There were a few walkers too. Runners were very scarce. It was over a mile into the run until I saw anyone. I was so it the zone that when they yelled, "coming on the left," I was startled. The peace is definitely nice, but it does make it kind of boring.
I heard some gun shots going off across the river. I was happy because it seemed like I was approaching the boat launch. It turns out they actually shoot guns at multiple places. When I finally got near the boat launch, I heard more gunfire. It is strange how that can be comforting, but I knew I was in a familiar area.
At the boat launch, there was a baby watching the water. She saw me running and pointed at me. It was a cute moment that took me away from the difficulty of a long run. I waved at her and said "hi." At this point, I hit mile 4. I wanted to get more than half my running done before getting back to my car. Therefore, I continued on.
I wanted to run at least another half mile before turning around. This part of the trail was a bit of an adjustment. It changed from trail to pavement. It wasn't too bad early on. It would've been tough later in the run. I went out a mile and back. The sun almost looked like it wanted to peak out.
Even though I was under trees most of the time, the weather was still great. It was cloudy and cool most of the time. I thought about wearing a singlet, but opted for a regular shirt. That worked out well in this weather.
The combination of speedwork and high mileage is starting to take its toll on me. I felt pretty good a couple weeks ago, but now I'm all beat up. I need to back off. I think I'm going to limit myself to one speed session a week. As I hit 5 and 6 miles, I was already beginning to have some soreness. My IT band started to bother me slightly. I need to watch that carefully because I have had problems with it in the past.
Other than being sore, coming back in was quite uneventful. It was just mile after mile of trees, with the occasional peak at the Lehigh River. Some lady was texting at one point and her unleashed dog was in front of her on the trail. I was impressed that it stayed put. All it did was yawn. It could've moved out of the way a little, but I was happy it didn't chase me.
When I made it to mile 8, I couldn't believe I was only halfway done. Throughout a lot of the run, I kept adding my total weekly mileage up. If I completed the run, it would be 52 miles. I was looking forward to hitting that 50 mile mark. Just getting back to my car was a choir.
Right before I got to the car, I almost stepped on a snake along the canal in Freemansburg. It was a small snake, so that is why I missed it. I think it was black with yellow stripes the length of its body. I saw a turtle in this area once too, in addition to the ducks and geese that are always in the canal. It is quite the area for wildlife.
I had not had a thing to eat and I could've used a drink when I got back to my car. I was afraid that if I stopped, I might not getting going again. Therefore, I passed it up and kept moving along. That made for a difficult remainder of the run. Before mile 11, I felt like I was bonking some. Trying to get to mile 11 seemed like forever. It was so slow.
I told myself to just keep plugging away. I as I was around mile 12, I came near the Steel and finally had some nice views. I knew I was close to Sand Island, so I wanted to just keep going. Somehow, I was going to make it to mile 13. Even if I didn't make it all the way back without walking.
In this section, I passed the only run that I saw all day. It was a young kid running in khakis. I assume he was a Lehigh student. He needs to get some running attire. When I parked at the beginning, I saw a cute woman running. I should've followed her. Little did I know that I would see so few runners out there.
This weekend is the Irish festival called the Celtic Classic. As I got to Sand Island, I could hear the bagpipes. That was a huge boost. Now I see why some people use music to get into a nice rhythm. They sure did that for me. I wish I would've been running a little farther out. I turned around around right at Sand Island. I ran briefly on the pavement. I was surprised that it wasn't worse on my knees.
The bagpipes had really lifted my spirits and given me a second wind. That lasted for about a mile. Coming back didn't seem as slow as going out, but now my legs were in a lot of hurt. I kept plugging along. A mile or so from Sand Island was nice because it was a fairly smooth stone path.
The terrain was one of the most challenging things of the run. The dirt parts like I encountered in the last couple miles were nice and soft, but they could be uneven and had a lot of roots and rocks. The stone parts of the trail were uneven too and sometimes different size stones. They use some big stones in Freemansburg and those suck. This terrain beat me up bad. The arches of both of my feet were quite sore afterward and my feet couldn't wait to get out of the shoes. I think I need to get some new shoes as well.
The last mile was certainly the most difficult as always. Every tenth of a mile or so, I would look at my watch and countdown until I was finished. I may look at my watch too much early on, but I think it is a big help late as I near the run's completion. Even though I was beat, I decided to pick it up with just over half a mile to go. That didn't last long because the footing was just too uneven and rocky. I think I made it about two tenths of a mile before giving up and just cruising on in
One thing that made this run nice was how long it took. It was just under 2:14 minutes. When I am pacing the Runner's World Half Marathon, I'll be trying to finish in 2:10 minutes. Since I can run a half marathon so much faster than that and even my training half times are much faster than that, I need to get used to running for that much time. This was perfect for that and my 17 and 18 mile runs will be even better.
I was so amazed at how hard that run was. It might've been as difficult as my 23 miler before my last marathon. It did dawn on me that I haven't run this far since the spring of 2010. That is quite some time ago.
Running alone is tough. Those group runs have been huge for long runs like this one. I will try to get to the BCR runs as often as I can. I'm so beat up that I will need to use the foam roller a lot, get some rest and maybe put on some Biofreeze. I need some more recovery.
One thing that helped me get through this run was thinking about how short 2 hours is within the time frame of my whole life. Heck, I sleep for four times longer than that. Tomorrow will be my much needed weekly rest day. I might switch my speedwork around this week. I'm not sure when I'll do the mile repeats. Maybe Monday, maybe Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. I guess a lot of it will depend how my body feels. Either way, I need to back off the speedwork some. I'm already quite strong and I don't need to do too much. I am clearly getting close to that point.
16 miles - 2:13:51 (8:22 pace)
good time for pacing
so beat up, 50 mile week
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