How to get a lot of likes from travel bloggers

November 13, 2014November 9, 2014 / Amy / 4 Comments

After I posted my Cape Cod marathon recap, I immediately started getting more likes than I normally do, and from new readers. As I checked out these other bloggers, I started to notice a theme…they were all travel blogs. Hmmm…that’s odd. And then I had a realization. I had categorized my post under “travel” because I had traveled to the race. This must have led all these travel bloggers to my post. I think this is really cool, and I will now be using a “Running” category on every post. It’s kind of funny, though because I didn’t actually talk about travel AT ALL in my post. Haha.

After all that, I thought I should write a little about the Cape and our travel experiences. I thought the best way to do this would be to make up a quick travel survey to fill out.

BARE BONES TRAVEL SURVEY

Location: Cape Cod, Falmouth, MA
Time of Year: Late October
Length of Stay: Not Quite 2 days, 1 night

Where’d You Stay? At the beach! Seacrest Beach Hotel. The hotel was nice, and had an off season discount, but I wasn’t super impressed. The pictures on the website are nicer than the actual rooms, and it was a bit more expensive than I felt was worth it given that it’s not beach season, but it wasn’t out of line with the area. In context of the race, the hotel was about a 15 min drive from the start/finish, and it was one of the very few (only?) hotels that didn’t have a 2 night minimum.

The hotel beach

How’d You Get there? Drove. We had no problems with traffic, but I know it gets very backed up during the summer.

What/Where did you Eat? I purposely tried to eat “boring” things before the race, so I’m not going to comment on this one. It could give the wrong impression. 😉

Any Must See Sites/Attractions? The beach! Specifically, the Lighthouse was spectacularly beautiful with the ocean in the background. (Mom, I know you’re laughing because of all the complaining about our lighthouse visits when I was a kid.)

Picture from the race facebook page. It’s even more beautiful in person!

Cranberry bogs being harvested. This was just so cool. You’ll have to visit in the fall though if you want to catch the harvest.

Where cranberries come from.

What was the weather Like? Highs in the low 60s, sunny, and very windy.

What was the Running Like? Beautiful views, and the race was very well organized. Outside of a race, I’d stick to the beach front area, and maybe check out the bike path. There are a lot of blind curves on some of the inland roads and this was also were most of the really tough hills were.

Would you go back? Yes, but probably not during the summer….I’m not a “hanging out on the beach” person, and there’d be too many people, I think.

Did you know that categories actually did something?

Have you been to Cape Cod?

Any other questions I should answer?

2014 Resolution Check-In – It’s November Already?!

November 5, 2014November 4, 2014 / Amy / 8 Comments

Two months to go in 2014! That went quickly, didn’t it? It’s been quite the year so far. Let’s take a look at where I am on my running resolutions. Hopefully I don’t have too many left. 🙂

You can find the detailed list here.

1. Complete a 1/2 Marathon in Under 2 Hours – Done! 4.27.2014

Woot!

2. Keep up with my Running Blog – Success! – I’m killing it at this one.

3. Run a Marathon – Check! Most recent resolution crossed off the list.

My form looks pretty similar to above….but I was going oh so much slower.

4. Keep a Running Journal – Done! I learned that running journals aren’t my thing.

5. Join a Running Club – I decided that I’m not doing this…another year, I think.

6. Volunteer – Check! I stuffed packets like a boss!

7. Run 1000 miles – (Revised down from 2014k/1250 miles) – Working on it…about 135 miles to go.

8. Beat Jeff’s 5k PR – I’ve got two (maybe) holiday 5ks in mind. We’ll see how my legs are feeling after marathon recovery.

So, that’s my progress so far. It’s crunch time!

How are you doing on your resolutions? Done yet? Still keeping track?

Runnin’ with the Devil!

October 31, 2014 / Amy / 10 Comments

I hope you all are having a Happy Halloween! I don’t have any big plans for tonight. We live in a building that doesn’t get trick or treaters, and I don’t intend to go out even though I live 5 minutes away from probably the biggest Halloween party in the country (Salem, MA). I’m just not really into crowds, or staying up past 10 PM. (Can you say party animal?)

But I do enjoy Halloween. We’ve decorated the house, and I have some much more low key plans for today/tonight:

1.) Candy! I bought some last night at the grocery store, and I plan on eating fun size chocolate bars throughout the day. I’ve also really been looking forward to candy corn and peanuts ever since the candy corn started showing up on store shelves in August. (Recipe: Mix together candy corn and peanuts in a one to one ratio, then enjoy!)

2.) Costumes! Even though I don’t like parties, I still like getting dressed up. How’d I do? Can you even tell who’s who?

Amy Farrah Fowler (from The Big Bang Theory)

3.) Scary Movies – We recently watched The Conjuring and that was really good. We still have to pick one for tonight though. Any suggestions?

One thing I won’t be doing this Halloween, but have had a blast with in the past, is the Devil’s Chase in Salem, MA. I’ve run it three times and it has quickly become one of my favorite holiday races. Unfortunately, I’ve missed the race the last two years because it’s fallen on the same weekend as a goal race. (Niagara Falls Marathon last year, Cape Cod Marathon this year.)

Let’s go running!

In honor of it being Halloween, I’ll give you a quick run down of what I love about the Devil’s Chase:

1.) It’s a Holiday Race: Really, I know no better way to celebrate than by running. This race in particular is good because it gets me into Salem around Halloween without having to deal with all the Hullabaloo.

2.) Everyone Dresses as a Devil: Okay, not everyone. What I mean is that this isn’t a costume race, it’s a Devil’s Chase, so there are hundreds of devils running around the streets of Salem. It’s funny. And there are some creative costumes, like deviled eggs or Devil Dogs.

3.) It Has a Theme Song: It’s not official, but I can’t think of a better way to get pumped than by listening to Runnin’ With the Devil on repeat on the drive to the race.

4.) It’s 6.66 miles: I like this; it’s quirky. How often do you run 6.66 miles? They also auction off bib no. 666 and proceeds go to charity.

5.) You have to Dress up to Win: So even the super fast runners are devils. This is genius in my opinion.

6.) Candy: I don’t know why candy isn’t a more popular post race food. It’s delicious.

I’m way too happy for a devil, but Jeff has the right idea.

Have you ever run in costume? What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

Nifty Fifty!

October 30, 2014 / Amy / 8 Comments

Turns out the Cape Cod Marathon was my 50th race!

I haven’t really been keeping track of this sort of thing on purpose, but I noticed it because I use an excel document to keep track of all my races and the rows are numbered automatically. Once I noticed, I thought it was pretty cool that a “milestone” race was a special one; one I’d trained for for months and months.

In celebration of my 50th race, I’d like to share some fun facts from my first 50 races!

FIRST RACE: May 27th, 2007 ::: The Run to Remember ::: Boston, MA ::: 5 miles ::: 55:50 minutes Recap

LONGEST DISTANCE RACED: Marathon ::: 26.2 miles ::: 3 races

MOST RUN RACE: Delaware Avenue YMCA Turkey Trot 8k ::: 6 times ::: I Love this race! I can’t wait to line up for it again this year.

And I’ve run with my sis all 6 times!

MOST RACES PER YEAR: 2010 ::: 9 races ::: I don’t really shoot for a particular number of races per year, and I don’t think I’ll ever get up past this number. I don’t run to race, so I’ve become more particular about the races I sign up for.

MOST POPULAR MONTH: October ::: 10 races ::: Best time of year to race, no one can convince me otherwise.

DISTANCE MOST RACED: 5k :::13 races ::: This is funny to me because it’s my least favorite distance. A lot of holiday races are 5k, though, and those are some of my favorites, so that probably has something to do with it.

Did you say “Jingle Bell 5k”? Sign me up!

TOTAL DISTANCE RACED: 360.46 miles

TIME SPENT RACING: 63 hours, 48 minutes, 30 seconds

BEST POST RACE FOOD: Run-A-Latke 5k ::: Swampscott, MA ::: December 1st, 2013 ::: Latkes and Doughnuts ::: We had plans to go out to breakfast after the run, but the food was so delicious that we filled up after the race and didn’t even bother.

Jeff always makes sure to capture the important moments. 🙂

Do you keep track of how many races you’ve completed? What are some of your favorites?

***Also, I just finished up editing a new Races page, where I’ve listed all my races and times and linked to all the recaps I have written. So, if you want to check out my 1st fifty races, take a look.***

Alaskan Scavenger Hunt

September 26, 2014 / Amy / 12 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog for a few months, you’ll know I did some Scavenger Hunt runs in the very recent past. I decided to take a break from that, but almost immediately after giving it up, I read this post by Kristen at Run Away With Me. In the post, she mentions how she hasn’t been able to do a Scavenger Hunt because living up in Alaska she doesn’t see the same things that have been on the typical Scavenger Hunt list (like a traffic light, for example). So, Kristen posted an Alaskan Scavenger Hunt List, and well, in the words of Barney Stinson…

Kristen’s list was no easy feat for this New Englander. I think I did pretty well, but I’ll let you guys be the judge. (What do you think, Kristen? Did I rock it?) It included these 8 Alaskan items:

Mountains

Not a strong start. Plenty of hills on my run, but no mountains. I did find this bump, though.

The Ocean

Easy Peasy…the ocean is everywhere around here. 🙂

A Moose

#notarealmoose #cheating

Salmon

How much is that gold salmon in the window? Or cod? What does salmon look like anyways? I’ve only seen it cooked.

A Train

Oh hey, I got another one without cheating!

A Glacier

Kristen, have you licked a glacier? Does it taste like Gatorade?

An Eagle

Eagles are EVERYWHERE. In addition to this plastic dealy, I saw four stone eagles, countless bumper stickers, and its the USPS logo, so every mailbox and mail truck…tons of eagles.

Boats

Another easy one for New England, ending on a good note.

If nothing else, I’m pretty sure I get an A for effort! 🙂 It was quite fun trying to find these; it definitely got the creative juices flowing. Thanks for the great list Kristen!

Did anyone else try Kristen’s Alaskan Scavenger Hunt? What does a Salmon look like? If I didn’t admit it, would have have believed my moose?

21 miles of mental training

September 20, 2014 / Amy / 10 Comments

OOoooff. That is the best word to describe my long run this weekend. Well, I suppose it’s more of a sound than a word, but you get the point, right? It was a toughie. AKA: An opportunity for mental training…hooray.

Pre-run selfie. I think I suspected what was coming?

The morning was chilly, in the 40s when I set out at 6:45ish. It was my first run of the season in long sleeves, and I didn’t regret them for a second. I did regret forgetting my sunglasses, which I think was due to the fact that the sun wasn’t really out yet when I left the house. It could also be attributed to my “mad dash” out the door.* I crawled out of bed at 6:07, which is apparently before the sun rises these days, and I was out the door in less than 40 minutes…practically a record for me. I barely had time to even check facebook, and I certainly didn’t have time to read any running blogs for a little motivation.

I opted for a full sock today and not just the sleeves. Warmer ankles, but I missed my smart wool socks.

So, anyways, I went outside and started running. Then I just kept that up for a long time. 😉

I could tell pretty early on that I wasn’t feeling quite as spunky as last week. Something felt harder. The beginning miles passed as quickly as normal, and my pace was in the same range as last week, so it seemed that it was just my brain that wasn’t feelin’ it. Unfortunately, by the time I hit 9 miles I suspected that my legs weren’t really feelin’ it either. I usually have an inexplicable burst of awesome from about mile 9 to 14. Everything is sunshine and rainbows, and I pick up speed and have a grand ol’ time. But not this week. This week, I was counting down the miles I had left. I was feeling okay, but not great, and that was disconcerting.

The one exception to the mediocrity was unexpectedly running into Jeff, who was on his own long run, at mile 10. We don’t usually see each other out running, and it was a nice surprise.

When I hit 15 miles, I felt okay about having 6 miles to go, but somewhere in that mile things started going downhill. Actually, that’s not too far off from what actually happened in mile 16: rolling hills. Things were quickly going from “okay” to “not bad exactly, but definitely not good”.

At the 3 hour mark, I was scheduled for my 4th gu and, more excitingly, a walk break! I decided that I’d rather have a Gatorade again than choke down the gu, but I couldn’t make myself wait for the store to take a walk break. And this is where my pace went out the window. Until this point, I was still averaging a pace around 11 min/mile. The walk break didn’t kill it, but together with the stop for Gatorade (which involved waiting in line for someone to get a breakfast sandwich), I lost something like 5 minutes. And I couldn’t make that time up. My legs were toast; I couldn’t even stop myself from losing more time. But I kept chugging along.

At least I could enjoy the view. Well sort of, after a certain point, I have to keep an eye on the ground so I don’t trip over things.

And this is where the mental training comes in. Just after hitting mile 18, I ran by a shortcut home, and towards the bridge. I could have gone home, but I didn’t. I could have stayed in a flatter area until I hit 21 miles, but I didn’t. Instead, at 18.65 miles I ran over the stupid bridge. Then, at just over 20 miles, I ran BACK over the STUPID BRIDGE. And finally, when I was over the (stupid) bridge, I ran up yet…another….hill…before the final, blissful quarter mile of gradual decline that takes me to my front door (love).

These last hilly miles were hard. I kept telling myself “well, this is not awful”. Ha. I don’t like to think of a run as “bad”, I prefer a “it could be worse” attitude. I kept reminding myself about what good mental training this was, and thinking that “hey, at least I didn’t trip and fall”. It’s important for me to stay positive in the last hilly miles of training because my marathon has a hilly second half. If I’m going to get to the finish line, I’m going to have to not give up on the hills.

I ended up finishing 20 minutes slower than last week, which was only 1 mile shorter. Bummer. But I wouldn’t call it a bad run. Just a hard run. A necessary run. And now, let’s hope for smooth sailing for the remainder of training.

Is it cold where you live? Are you like me, or do you curse every step on a “bad” run? If I feel like this during the marathon, how on earth am I going to run 5.2 more miles?

*Why must I leave so early if I don’t need to beat the heat? Well, Jeff and I have a standing Saturday lunch date. And we like to leave the house at 11AM. Yeah, we could go later or on Sunday, but we don’t want to. So, I leave the house as early as possible considering my personal “do not get up before 6AM on a weekend” rule. I may complain about having to rush, but it’s totally my choice to do so. (Also, FYI, we left after 11 today because I was slow.)

A 20 Mile Saturday

September 15, 2014 / Amy / 12 Comments

WordPress has a filter that catches spam comments on your blog, and they don’t get posted. Occasionally, I read them. Most of them are hilariously composed. Here’s one of my new favorites:

Excellent web site. Plenty of useful info here. I am sending it to
some pals ans additionally sharing in delicious.
And of course, thank you on your sweat!

Oh, so close. That made sense for a while, and then….crash and burn! Although, I’d like to say, you are very welcome for my sweat!

Now, about those 20 miles. They were pretty great. Not very eventful, but I had a good time. I didn’t take any pictures on the run (guess I got my fill of that last week), so for the most part, I’ll have to try and paint a picture with my words. 🙂

I was out the door and running by 6:45 AM. It was tough! I don’t like to get up before 6 AM on the weekend, but I also like to take my time getting ready. It was only with Jeff’s help (he filled my camelbak), that I managed to get out the door only a couple minutes later than my target time.

I’ve been having a smoothie for breakfast on long run days, and it’s working quite well. I don’t like to eat immediately when I wake up, but I’m usually thirsty; the smoothie works well dealing with both of those issues. Also, it’s really easy. I’ll just have to figure out a way to do this on race day when I’m spending the night before in a hotel.

***I interrupt this post to bring you a smoothie recipe***

1/2 Frozen Banana (I have a bag of frozen half bananas in the freezer)
1 Cup Plain Soy Milk
2 Ice Cubes
2 TBS Peanut Butter
Pinch Cinnamon (if you like cinnamon)

Put it all in the blender and blend. The ice tends to make it a little icy. If you don’t like that, try a smidge more smilk instead.

Pre-run smoothies go best when served in a pint glass from your last half marathon.

***Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.***

Even though I say my run was uneventful, I did try out a few new things. First, I ate and drank more than usual. I brought enough gel to have one every 45 minutes, and I forced myself to actually follow that plan. For water, I made myself take one extra sip every time I had some.

Birds-eye view of my gu pocket. I look like a pack mule when I run. Full pockets and a camelbak. I’ve never been one to travel light. 🙂

This fueling plan had two consequences. One was that I felt better at the end of the run than I normally do. Those last few miles weren’t easy, but I felt less like I was running on fumes. So that’s good. The other consequence was that I ran out of water at around mile 17.

At that point, I went into a convenience store and bought the most refreshing gatorade I’ve ever drank in my whole life. I only had a credit card with me, and there was an $8 minimum, but after I offered to have the attendant charge me for 4 gatorades, he just let me pay with the card anyways. I was very grateful, but honestly if I had had to pay eight bucks, it would have been worth every penny.

Over the last 3 miles, I carried the bottle and drank the entire thing. I really think it gave me a little extra burst of energy (remember the gummy bear show on the disney channel where they would drink gummiberry juice and get a burst of power…that’s how I felt) Now, I’m planning on getting another one next week, and trying to figure out how to get some on race day.

The other new thing I tried was taking less walk breaks. I usually walk the first 0.1 of every mile, but this week I walked only while I was eating gu (and later, drinking gatorade). I was nervous that this would lead to some pretty tired legs, but like I mentioned before, I felt strong at the end of the run. So, I’m happy with how that went, and plan to stick to that plan for the rest of my long runs and the race. I ended up w/ a faster average pace than normal (even including the gatorade stop where I did not pause my watch – once I start it, I never pause it during a run), and I didn’t notice any adverse effects. Another win!

Overall, I’d say it was a pretty productive run.

How much do you eat/drink when you exercise? Do you remember Gummiberry juice? Do you pause your watch at all on long runs? And, as always…thank you for your sweat, guys and gals!

So long, Scavenger Hunt…for now

September 9, 2014 / Amy / 7 Comments

I’m finally getting my photos up from my last scavenger hunt! I haven’t been hunting continuously for two and a half weeks, I just got a little lazy about posting the final photos.

Before you check out my results, I have a confession to make. When I created this final list, I cheated a little. I decided to throw out one of the items that was randomly chosen and pick again. The item was a Santa Hat, and it was replaced by Disney Lawn Ornament. My reasoning was that we’d already had “Christmas Lights” and “Out of Season Decoration” and I wanted something easier and “new” to find.

I was wrong; by doing that, I’m convinced that I jinxed myself!

I had a tough time finding a bunch of these items, especially the Disney Lawn Ornament, and you can tell that from my pictures. I did however, within the first half mile of my Scavenger Hunt Run, run by a Santa Hat. Argh! I then ran by the same Santa Hat three more times throughout the week. (Someone had put a box of junk to the curb and a Santa Hat was sitting right on top!). I feel like the universe was laughing at me.

Here’s what I did find:

A Disney Lawn Ornament

Half points? A quarter?

When I spotted Olive Oyl, I was 98% sure that Popeye was not a Disney owned cartoon. I thought that it could be possible, since Disney owns a lot of things (including the Muppets), but I really didn’t think I’d found a Disney character. Since then, I did a quick internet search and found that while Disney doesn’t own Popeye, they did produce the live action Popeye movie with Robin Williams in 1980. So, with all those qualifications…..this counts, right?

A Running Trail

This is a walking path, but is the closest I could get. It feels “trail-like” to me, and I run on it, so I snapped a picture.

A Water Bottle

Could not believe how many crushed water, soda, gatorade bottles are left on the side of the road.

A Curvy Slide

This is barely a curvy slide. I saw at least 4 of these, where did all the really curvy slides go?

Neon Clothing

One day I decided to wear calf sleeves on my long run. I had a good run (probably unrelated) and now I must wear them for every long run.

And there you have it, the end of this series of Scavenger Hunts. I had a good time doing them, but I didn’t want it to start feeling like an obligation. I still have my master list and will probably “host” more hunts in the future. I just need a little break, so things don’t get stale.

I’m glad some of you played along! I enjoyed seeing everyone’s interpretations of the lists, and I hope you had fun while doing it.

10 miles – A photo diary

September 7, 2014 / Amy / 6 Comments

I’m behind on some posts (my last Scavenger Hunt post, a recap of August), and I’ve had some other half written posts in the works for quite a while (a camel bak review, a Throwback Thursday race recap), but you’ll have to wait for those because today I have a photo journal of my long run!

It was just barely cool enough (high 60s) to try out my new “knickers”.

This week, as a step back week, I covered 10 miles. I did a different route than my normal long run, and even ran down a new street. I tried drinking more water than usual and taking a gel more often (every 45 min), but I have no idea whether that made a difference because I normally make it about 15 miles before I start to fade. At the very least, I didn’t suffer any adverse effects from the added fuel, and that’s good to know.

Ready to go! Yeah, I wasn’t terribly excited.

I took a picture at every mile. This means I don’t have pictures of some interesting stuff, but it should give a more fair view of what I see on my run. I was a little surprised that I got some fun things in almost every picture. Especially if your definition of fun is a loose one. 🙂

Mile 1: Park + Ocean

Mile 2: Check out that greenery. Contrary to what everyone and their pumpkin spice lattes are saying, it’s not fall yet.

Mile 3: I’m not really sure what this building is, but I like the fountain.

Mile 4: Looking back where I came from.

At mile 4, I took my first gel, salted caramel gu. It’s pretty good, as far as this stuff goes, and I like the picture of the yeti on the front. I didn’t take my usual walk breaks this week, but I stopped to snap a photo at every mile, and walked while I ate my two gels so it wasn’t really too much different from the norm.

Mile 5: Cool little gate on a street I had never run down.

Mile 6: Stone Eagle.

Mile 7: The sun is officially out, and I think it actually felt nicer out than when it was hiding behind the clouds. Good.

Mile 8: Me running down a residential street.

I took my second gel at this point, chocolate cherry clif shot gel. This is the one with all the caffeine. It is also delicious. Last week I had 2 gels over 19 miles, today I took 2 over 10 miles. I was hungry, so I don’t think it was too much, probably too little last week.

Mile 9: More ocean views. I see the ocean a lot on this particular route. My kind of run.

Mile 10: Finally a run where I finish before arriving home rather than the other way around. Running past my front door to finish up is the worst!

Finished! I felt like a watch photo would be fitting, of course, the screen is not visible. At least I didn’t drop my phone while taking a left handed photo.

And there you have it. That was my 10 mile run! There’s nothing like marathon training to make 10 miles feel enjoyable. And I’m still on a pretty intense runner’s high. (Don’t believe they exist? You should have seen me dancing around and jumping up and down while we cooked pancakes.)

Bonus photo: crazy hair! And looking a lot more excited than pre-run!

I hope you all are having a good weekend. Have you ever made a photo journal? Aside from this one, I took a series of photos of an all nigher I pulled in college (to complete schoolwork), and those photos are pretty hilarious. That was back when I had to use an actual camera to do it. 🙂

Do other people do 19 mile long runs?

August 30, 2014 / Amy / 7 Comments

Since today was long run day, I hit the road for a 19 mile run. It seems like an odd distance to me, you hear a lot about “the 20 mile long run” and even the 18, but rarely (if ever) have I seen someone talk about the 19 they ran. Also, I’ve seen a lot of training plans that jump directly from 18 miles to 20 miles. What’s up with that? Are other people not running 19. I’ve basically made up the long run mileages of my training plan, so I’m curious what other people do.

Anyways, my run went pretty well. My legs seemed to be on board with the whole thing pretty much right from the start, and I continue to be elated with the mild temperatures this summer. My glutes (or something nearby) and hamstrings have been feeling pretty tired all week, and that’s how they felt this morning, too. Aside from that all was well. It’s pretty exciting to think how good my legs are going to feel for the first part of the marathon when they’ve been nicely tapered. (That sounds weird. Like I’m getting my legs surgically modified to fit perfectly in tapered jeans.)

I spent the first 6(ish) miles getting into a groove. I was searching for some stragglers on my scavenger hunt list and listening to an audiobook (Dark Places by Gillian Flynn), so I was pretty well entertained. I reached the top of my steepest hill right before 6 miles and the downhill that follows is where I tend to really start feeling good. The next 7 miles flew by, bringing me to 13.1 miles at around 2 hr 25 min.

I really like this part of my run. The view helps me ignore the hills, at least.

After I reach 13 miles, my brain tends to get a little fuzzy. I have an extraordinarily difficult time keeping track of how many miles I have left to run, and simple subtraction (19 – 13 = 6) can easily get messed up. Today I missed a turn that I take on a regular basis. And not just any turn, this street I forgot to turn down is one of my favorite parts of the run. I ran a quarter mile passed (past? which is it?) it before I realized…oops! My thoughts were something like “Wow…I’m feeling really good for 13.5 miles, and I’m still pretty sharp, I can even do math – I have 5.5 miles left….wait a second…..I’m not supposed to be here…”

I turned around so I could run down Pickman & Neptune Streets (my two favorites), and by the time I was back to some louder, more difficult streets I’d reached 15 miles. The point where things start to hurt a little. Like a switch turns on.

“What, your legs are starting to hurt? Let’s run up this really hilly street. It’ll be fun!”

The next 4 miles were pretty much just a countdown. I still felt pretty good for a while, but it was getting hot, and I was excited to finish up. While my legs were still hanging on at 16 miles, my brain had completely checked out.

My inner dialogue:

15.85 miles: “Sweet! Almost at 16, and then only 2 short miles to hit 19…no, 3 short miles.”
16 miles: “Woo! only 2 miles until 19! No, 3 miles, 3 miles…”
16.2 miles: “2 miles, 2 miles….Seriously, brain?! It’s 3, come on. Just stop looking at the watch.”

At that point, I started focusing on the ground so I wouldn’t hit any uneven spots and trip, and that task kept me sufficiently occupied until well past the 17 mile mark.

I had purposefully sent myself out on a run that I knew would end with me crossing the bridge to Salem, and pretty much immediately turning around to cross back over. Even though I knew it was coming it was still a very, very sad thing to actually have to do that. The timing ended up working out so that I got a walk break immediately upon reaching the top of the bridge. The walk break then ended as soon as I had finished the downhill portion. No fair! It was difficult having to start running again only to turn around after a tenth of a mile and climb back over, but I know (hope?) it’ll be good training for late hills in the marathon.

18 miles plus bridge = 😦

Despite my pitiful face in the picture above, it was really a great run. I can’t believe that with step back weeks and tapering, I only have 3 more long runs before the race. I mean, it isn’t until October 26th for goodness sake!

Next week is a step back week, so I’ll probably go for 10 miles. I’m going to try to keep my pace in check because these last two long runs have really done a number on my legs. I suspect I’m running them too fast (11:14/mile average pace, around 9:50ish on the running portions), but it’s not easy to slow down when I’m having such a good time.

Have you or do you plan to run a 19 miler? Anyone else have huge brain farts towards the end of long runs? And what are your tricks for keeping the “S” in LSD? (LSD being Long Slow Distance)