Thoughts during the long run, why don’t us runners call our races ‘Game Day’ like other sports? What makes a sport a game? Wouldn’t running be a game for some people and therefore, your race is game day? Maybe I should stay away from philosophy?

Game Day, Race Day, it would be the same event and same day for me in December. Janel and I had less than 8 weeks until our Irving races and it was time to start consistent double digit runs and go for the first two hour run of the training block. I should have started a month ago but your average runner does his average best at these things.

A proper training block with long runs for my last marathon attempt did not occur. I think I hit 10 miles one time and just gave the Irving marathon a whirl. One bonk later through some tears, I finished! I remember hitting the half marathon mark during the marathon and thinking, I wish I had trained more for this. My body agreed with my mind.

This time, I have at least hit double digit miles a couple times since August and would be going for about 13 miles for a two hour mark on this run. If I hit 13.1, even better! If I hit at least 10, still good! If I finished with anything less, I probably ended my run next to the local fried chicken place and threw in the towel. Howdy Tumble22! (Not a sponsor, I wish).

With an incoming storm coming into the Austin area and a long lunch break on my calendar, I began the run. The weather wasn’t too bad with being in the low 80s and I felt as if I had a chance to not get too sweaty.

Time to go!

I went towards our local park in the neighborhood to keep the running surface easy on my legs. My shins had not quite gotten excited about the increase of mileage so I was still cross training and icing my shins to stay as healthy as I could. With the weather not too shabby, I took off around a nine minute mile and tried to stay around that pace for the long run.

The first couple of miles and into the third felt fantastic! There was one other runner at the park who, after a few loops, wisely decided he had accomplished enough. I bet his legs weren’t hurting the rest of the day unlike future averagerunnerpaul. One other lady was out walking her dog who didn’t seem bothered by the bearded, sweaty man running loop after loop around it so that was good.

After I passed the 30 minute mark, my body realized that it was going to get a wee bit more difficult. The running form started to feel a little more robotic and I started feeling a little mentally drained thinking how am I going to run another 3 hours when it is actually Marathon day? Some people would use this as motivation to train even harder but I promptly forgot this thought the next day.

Mile four was my first slow down and after a quick bathroom stop at the park port-a-potty, I was back in action! Mile five made me feel better and after 45 minutes, I stood a chance to feel good at the hour mark. Everyone had left the park at that point and the sweat was in true summer fashion due to the high humidity. Rain was in the forecast so I kept hoping that it would come down on my at some point during the run.

The wind started picking up and the clouds had a darkness to them that I couldn’t wait for. Please be some big rain I prayed to the rain gods of Texas. As I continued lap after lap, the first of the drizzle began! YES! I was feeling tired at this point and passed the hour mark excited to cool down. Three drops later, the rain ended. Three drops. That’s it. That’s all the clouds would give me. Alas, the rain was not meant to be. Back to sweatiness…

Miles 6 through 8 passed by in a blur as I tuned out to my audiobook and then I had come up an hour and 15 minutes before I knew it. At this point, I didn’t think the 2 hour mark was in my reach and I quickly began feeling the ‘give up’ moments piling up. I decided to walk for a couple minutes and recuperate before restarting again. My shins were not feeling it at mile 9 going on 10 but at least I was moving again.

After hitting 10 miles, I decided that an hour and forty would be enough for me for the day and the two hour goal would need to be saved for another day. I hit my sub goal of double digit mileage and was content with that. I decided to cruise through the neighborhood for a couple more miles and ended at 12 for the day! Looking back, I was so close to the half marathon mark yet my mind thought that last mile seemed so far away. Maybe next time this post will be a little more exciting for the distance, we shall see!

Anyways, on the brighter side too, I passed over 900 miles for the year which marks the highest amount of yearly mileage in at least five years. It’s a bigger number for me and I ended up having fried chicken later that night with Janel (Shoutout to Tumble22, still not a sponsor). That was also just as exciting as passing 900 miles!

Hope your October running has been great so far and you are enjoying long runs if they have been on your agenda!