A Passion for Running

Have you ever had a run that you felt defined you as a runner? A run where your felt back was made or broken?

I had such a run today.

Coach’s instructions were to take it slow and enjoy myself. Slow and easy certainly was how I started today’s run. In fact, I’d characterize it as being squarely in my recovery zone. Breathing was easy, the legs moved effortlessly and everything felt beautiful …until the two hour point.

At two hours, things started to feel heavy and very quickly went downhill from there. Breathing was still excellent but the legs just got heavier and heavier and heavier. And I still had an hour to go!

It was a replay of last week’s long run only this time, I’d started out much slower. I was stymied for an answer. The best I’ve been able to come up with so far is that either:

1. I was feeling the effects from Saturday’s speedy “easy” run, or
2. I was wrong about having adapted to running on 100% pavement (as I mentioned in today’s previous post)

Whatever the case, the run was horrible. I had been running slowly for two hours and had not been rewarded in the least by the “Running Gods” for doing so. ARGH!

What could I do? “BATTLE IT OUT!” came the answer. And then I remembered something I read Thomas does when he’s feeling crappy – he pushes the pace faster. So, I tried it thinking “Well, I am pretty sure it can’t make me feel any worse”.

The gamble paid off. Running faster (I’d say by about 30 seconds a mile) helped. I did not really feel better but at least I felt like my legs were in some sort of groove.

The pain, and the mental game that goes along with it continued for the rest of the run. By the time I was at 2:45, I was comparing the pain to mile 21 of a marathon. Yes, it was that bad.

And then the defining moment. I was listening to my inner voice crying about the pain when, suddenly, something snapped. Something good snapped. And in that snappy little moment, I remembered a phrase and made up a few of my own. Here’s a sampling of my inner dialog at about mile 18:

We train for this.
We train for this!
We TRAIN for THIS!
*#$%*%(%)#!!!!!!
I’m a mile eatin’ monster.
*#$%*%(%)#!!!!!!
I’m a mile eatin’ MONSTER!
I’M A MILE EATIN’ MONSTER!!!

And that was that. I got so mad at the pain I’d been carrying around that I stubbornly yelled out loud at it. I swore a blue streak into the Canadian cold that would have frightened a Polar bear into the water.

And then I did the hardest thing I do on my long runs – I passed by my house knowing I still had 15 minutes of running to do. And then you know what I did? I promised myself to go beyond the three hour mark by at least a minute just to kick that pain squarely in the ass and show it who the boss was.

I won. And, no matter how hard they are, the rest of these will be a mental cake walk.

Time: 3 hours + TWO minutes
Distance: 20.1 miles (yeah, you better believe I’m happy about going past twenty miles)
Pace: 9:03 minutes per mile
Average Heart Rate: I have no idea (although I’m guessing about 158)