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Easter morning long run
By Kevin | April 12, 2009
Click here to view today’s run as captured by the Garmin Forerunner 405.
5:35am, 38-degrees and damp, 11.5 miles in 2:20, avg. HR = 149, avg. pace = 12:14
My goal this morning was to get out the door early enough to complete my long run, a slow 14-miler, and make it home in time to see the kids wake up and see what the Easter bunny left for them. My alarm was set to 4:30am. I had some oatmeal and water, filled up my water bottles on my Fuel Belt, put on my gear, made the obligatory bathroom stop, and was out the door by 5:30.
This morning was chilly and damp. It felt like east coast weather. The overcast skies hid any light from the moon and stars, so I had my headlamp on for the first 45-minutes or so. After two miles of trail, there is a dog park, with a restroom, where I stopped to answer nature’s call again. Back out on the road, I noticed a runner about a half-mile ahead, and the thought crossed my mind that maybe I should try to catch him or her. I quickly realized that he or she must be out for a short run, because I wasn’t moving anywhere near that pace. In fact, I was going quite slow, really.
But, I wanted to stay relaxed and keep my heart rate around 150 or less. So, I was right where I wanted to be. By the time I got over the next rise in the road, the runner ahead of me had picked up another runner…and they were cruising. Buh-bye.
Around mile 5.74 (approximately), nature called again. No dog park with restrooms out here running through rural Erie farmlands. But, there was nobody else up at this hour, soooo…let’s just say I added some fertilizer to the edge of a field and began searching for a few large leaves.
Thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail often speak of “trail magic”, when an important supply suddenly appears along the trail (usually left by other hikers who wanted to lighten the load). It’s often some kind of non-perishable food, or a roll of duct-tape, or…whatever you happen to need at the moment. This morning I had my own “trail magic”.
As I was reluctantly yanking up my pants again, having been less than effective with my leaves, I noticed a small roll of toilet paper on the branch of a tree nearby. I kid you not. So, I thanked the trail magic gnomes in the middle of nowhere and quickly moved on.
Soon, I realized that my pseudo-calculations about how far I was running were a bit off. I know, I know…you’re thinking, “but what about that fancy-schmancy GPS watch you got there?”. Well, I knew exactly how far I had already run, but I was only estimating where this loop would take me, and how far it would be once I finished. Based on other runs I’ve done near here, I thought I had a pretty good idea…but I was off by a bit. AND, my pace was pretty darn slow this morning, even without the “trail magic” breaks.
So, it became evident that I would be cutting it pretty close to get home before the kids woke up. At that point, I just made a beeline (well, a slowly uphill plodding bee) for home, even though I knew I’d be short of my 14-mile goal.
I got home just in time. Garrett and Gillian were both awake, and being sequestered to Garrett’s room until I got home. He had already discovered that the Easter bunny had left a little trail magic of his own outside his door. No! Not THAT kind of trail magic! I’m talking about the chocolate that must’ve dropped out of the bunny’s pockets or something!
Anyway…it was a nice quiet long run, that has me feeling a bit more confident about going into the NJ Marathon on May 3rd without a full training cycle. Still, I haven’t covered even a half-marathon distance since my last marathon, the Wyoming Marathon, on May 25th of last year. NJ might end up being my slowest marathon yet…but I’ll finish it.
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
April 13th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Dude – nice post. Although, I’m okay if you don’t want to write about ‘trail magic’ again…ever. Glad you got home for the Easter fun. The Garmin site looks awesome! That’s really cool I hope I’ll be able to run a little with you in NJ, but I am still nursing this heel injury, and I have to do my fitness test this week, so I’ll probably aggravate it again. Start looking at the course for me and see if there are some easy places for me to meet up with you. Ciao.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I concur with Scott about the “trail magic”. Probably more info than we need. It’s good to keep it real, but. . . . Otherwise, keep it up, you’ll be fine for NJ!