Week 17: Fifteen + Five Miles

20:40 second run/walk ratio
4:38:20 hours
15.90 miles
17.5 minutes/mile

35:65 second (appx) run/walk ratio
1:18:54 hours
4.7 miles
16.8 minutes/mile

Well, today's run was a big mess. I got up early enough—right at 5 AM, got ready, and was about to head out at 5:45, when my running app started acting up, demanding that I had to log in in order to start the app running. I futzed around with it for about 15 minutes, finally gave up and registered an account, then headed out, only to remember a few minutes down the road that I'd forgotten to bring my battery stick, and I knew my battery phone couldn't last for 20 miles, so I had to go back and get it.

Still, I got to the park by 6:30 and started my 20-mile run. It was hot today—forecast was for 90 F, but it was also supposed to be partly cloudy, so I was hoping for some shade. No luck! The only clouds were little wispy ones near the horizon, nothing to stand between me and the hot sun. It started getting hot around 7 AM. Still, I did my first 8 miles or so without too much trouble, but by the time I'd gone 10 miles, I was exhausted and ready to quit. I ate a gel at about 9 miles, and started drinking water, little sips at first, then more and more as the day went on.

At maybe 12 miles, I decided to stop at the restroom to refill my water bottle and pour water over my face and head. That helped, so I planned to stop every three miles to soak my head. (In this week's paper, there was an article about planned improvements at Meadowbrook Park, and one of their plans is to install a misting station along the trail. That will be awesome! But it won't be done until next spring, so won't help me at all for this marathon!)

I stopped at 15 miles, and noticed that my phone battery was very low. I splashed water on my face and head, but was still very hot and tired. It was already 11 PM and only getting hotter. I thought about heading home to wait out the heat of the day and finishing my run later, but had just about decided to stick it out, when I discovered that I'd brought the wrong cord for the battery stick—I'd forgotten that the iPhone doesn't use a normal micro-USB connection, and the one I brought wouldn't plug into my phone. So that was that. I jumped in the truck and came home. I plugged in my phone to recharge, then settled in to rest for a few hours until the day cooled down enough to finish my run.

I was hoping to get back out at around 2 PM, but it was still blazing hot so I waited until 4 PM, and it was still hot, so I waited until nearly 5 PM, and then decided to get started anyway, and just walk the remaining nearly 5 miles if necessary. The sun was still hot, but I had some shade from the oak tree and the hill behind the house, so I went ahead and did some run intervals. I was hoping if I left the app running but paused, I'd be able to just start it up again to finish, but somehow I ended up stopping it, so I just used my phone to count laps (44 laps = appx 4.7 miles), and ran about 35 seconds each lap, then walked the rest of the way. I felt much better than I did this morning, with shade to run in!

Anyway, I got 20 miles in, although there was a six hour break between the first 15 miles and the last 5.