I've had a big last few days. Ideally, I would've run my last big long run yesterday and took today off. However, I really wanted company for this run. It's something I usually don't do for long runs. Emily was available today, not yesterday, so running today it was.
I was grateful to not have any work orders. That meant that I could start at 11:30 AM, rather than later in the afternoon. While I would've liked to have run on trails, most of them seem to be too icy for a run of this length. I hate roads, but I figured neighborhood roads would be better. I'm kind of sick of my own neighborhoods though and they are hilly too.
I decided to go over by Freedom High School and run the East Hills area. Even though it has that name, the hills aren't too bad. Originally, Emily and I were going to meet at Freedom High School. However, with school going on, I decided to meet at Our Lady of Perpetual Help church. That is nearby and the parking lot was empty. It was my grandmother's church.
The weather was the same old, same old. It was about 16 degrees and felt like 8 degrees when I started. I thought nothing of it. I wore my jacket instead of my fleece vest. The annoying thing is that it was just windy enough to need the headband in some directions, but not in others. I took it on and off throughout.
I didn't have a real plan of where to run. I know those neighborhoods and the surrounding area a little, but not well. Basically, I was just running and running some more to get in miles. Emily was going to meet me around 2 hours from when I started. That meant about 14 miles into the run.
I started off by heading west out from the church. This was a nice and wide neighborhood road. The streets were cleared. I was happy about that. I decided I would run toward my grandmother's old house. I haven't been there in years, but I was able to find it quite easily. It looks different, but I can't forget it. I spent many days there. It was cool to see. I gave myself the sign of the cross as I went by, which I guess is kind of weird.
The problem was that the neighborhoods around her old house were a bit of a mess. They were partially snow covered and at times that could be frustrating. The good thing is that they are lightly traveled.
I cruised around at a very comfortable pace. The legs are no longer sharp, so I ran more in the 8:30 range. I went all over the neighborhood around my grandmother's old place. A couple times, I did long outs and then back on the next street over. That added mileage, but was boring. I thought the change of scenery would be great and make the miles fly by, but it didn't. It was boring running.
I tried not to think of total miles remaining and opted to think about how many miles I had left until Emily joined me. I knew it would get much better after that point. Finally, at around 5 miles, I got so bored of the running that I decided to change things up. I figured I might as well get somewhere and do something challenging. I planned to run to all three of the Bethlehem High Schools. At that point, I wasn't too far from Bethlehem Catholic and Liberty anyway and I started near Freedom.
This idea made the run much more bearable. It wasn't long until I got to Beca. I ran around their parking lot. I didn't actually know how to get from there to Liberty, but I knew the direction, so I ran that way. I figured they were about a mile apart and I was correct. I was at Liberty in no time.
I was now around 7 miles into the run. I tried to find a bathroom at Liberty's stadium, but had no luck. I ran around the school's perimeter. This was all sidewalk and it slowed me down to around 9 minute miles. That occurred for about 2 miles. I was fine with that. I was in no rush.
I've run the Freedom to Liberty run, so I knew it was about 4 miles between schools. The only issue was that it would be gradually uphill going from Liberty to Freedom. I didn't quite know the route to take, but eventually I sort of went the right way. I headed in the correct direction through the neighborhoods anyway.
By this time, I wasn't doing bad, but not great either. I wasn't sure if I'd survive 20+ miles. My foot was bothering me slightly and the quads were feeling a little dead. I did use KT Tape on them and I think that might've saved them.
I got back to Freedom around mile 12. I ran through the school parking lot. I wanted to run through every one of the high schools. I then went in some of the areas near the church. I thought the more distance I could do before stopping, the better. I didn't want Emily waiting though. It turned out to be perfect. I was just over 14 miles and 2 hours when I got to the church. Emily was already waiting for me at the car.
I was already beat up a little and kind of interested to see how this would go. I was hoping with conversation, I'd forget about my soreness. That seemed to be the case and it worked well. I needed to fuel up briefly, so I had a Clif Bar and some water.
We headed out and it was great having company. I wanted to try another neighborhood that I didn't run through before. That wasn't bad, but it wasn't as big as I was hoping. It was also quite hilly. We got 1.5 to 2 more miles anyway.
Then we headed back some of the ways that I ran earlier. I ran by my grandmother's old house again and we got to talking about our families. That was nice and the miles just flew by. It is amazing what a difference that can make. The other big thing is that I didn't look at my watch as often. Suddenly, these same neighborhoods that were boring an hour earlier were now not so bad.
I was amazed at how well I felt at mile 20. By then, I knew my planned 23 miles was very likely. Coming into the run, I wasn't sure if I could do that without killing myself. We ran around some of the clearer neighborhoods.
With a little over a mile to 23, we were around Freedom High School. We had to watch those careless teen drivers getting out of school, so we ran on the sidewalks. I made the mistake of suggesting maybe running another mile. My quads were finally starting to slip.
Emily I had run 9 miles when we got to 23 miles for me. Of course, she convinced me to run another mile. After all, the 9 we had run to that point felt like about half of that. Going out during that last mile was tough with a headwind, but at least we'd have a tailwind coming back.
Although the quads were feeling it with half a mile to go, I decided to push going uphill. Emily stayed with me for a little while, but I was going pretty fast. I couldn't believe what I had left. I thought at some point I might die, but I never did. I dropped my overall pace by about 4 seconds in the last half mile. That's quite impressive after already running 23.5 miles. That final mile was a 7:32.
I'm sure without Emily, I would've made 20 miles. How much more beyond that though, I'm not so sure. She was a huge help. I probably need to run long runs or parts of long runs with others more often. I like them solo because it is such a mental challenge to get over. However, with someone, they are so much more pleasant. It was her birthday too, so I'm very grateful that she came out. I hope I can BQ next month and then I can return the favor and really help her out with her race later in the spring.
This was actually my longest training run ever on roads. I did 25 miles once on trails, but I walked a lot of that. This time, I only stopped for a drink and food. I ran 23 in my previous goal marathon buildup several years back.
We have a major winter storm coming tomorrow night. That will throw off my schedule. I'd like to rest tomorrow and run Thursday. However, with all the big snow on Thursday, that might be impossible. I may have to try to do something tomorrow and rest Thursday. I've put in 71 miles over the last 5 days though, so we'll see how my body feels. This has been a hard week so far and will continue to be. Once it is over, I'm really backing off.
24 miles - 3:25:24 (8:33 pace)
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