Completed my first ever 24-mile run this weekend. It was one of my first ever long runs in which I felt utterly emotionally and physically depleted at the end. Logically, I am supposed to feel somewhat tired, but emotionally amazing...but, I didn't feel either; I felt 200% exhausted and only somewhat amazing. You see, 2 weeks ago, I ran my first ever 23 miles and ended thinking I could have easily run two more; that's how strong I was 2 weeks ago. So, this run, in my opinion, was supposed to be a breeze. But, at the end I was only focusing on getting the run over with and besides, life was waiting, or should I say 'pulling', me at the "finish line".
I rushed back upstairs after my run, stayed in my compressions capri tights for about 20 minutes as I stretched in every way possible against our couch and as I got the update from my hubby about the morning family happenings I missed. I then quickly took a hot, hot, then hotter bath and got up from that tub and literally hobbled to my son's first Little League baseball game where we, the family, stayed until close to 3:30pm. I don't think I even got a chance to think and reflect on my accomplishment of the morning; the entire day felt rushed and even somewhat surreal. The minute I stepped back in my home it went from calm nature meditative state to full-on, soccer-mom mode (or should I say 'baseball mom'?).
Being a mom and a distance runner is like living in two totally different universes. For the whole morning I was in YUMMY ME LAND, listening to inspirational audio books, watching the stars disappear as the sun rose up in the sky from 5-7am, eating unbelievably awesome peaches from fruit stands, and running to the beats of amazing, sweat-producing tunes. Then, I come home to absolute chaos. I was ready for it, of course, just physically a bit slow. Chris, my hubby, has not made lunches for the training, then he announced that he too needed a quick run and was running around getting himself ready to bolt out for a fast one. He left me with the kids, whom at this point had just about had enough of each other in our tight city apartment....so the short bath I had, was primarily short because, well....how long can any mom soak knowing that any minute now, your soak can be disrupted by screams, whines and fights. Even though I had a 'talk' with the kids about helping out with good behavior, I knew it was just a matter of time. There was no fun in anticipating that scenario...so I took a hot, hot bath, on 'speed' and got out of there. Kids were great, I could have sat there another 5 minutes, but seeing how slow I was I was not about to chance it.
At the baseball game, my toenail, which had turned milk colored during the last long run, looked looser and looser and with a slight nervous tug, the entire middle nail on my left foot just came off; surprisingly there was no pain, nothing. What a relief. I always thought nails hurt when they fall. "Wow", I thought, "My first casualty of the long runs". Which on second thought, is not entirely true if you consider the severe chafing I kept developing on each run.
2 weeks ago I did my 22-miler (turned out 23 because I miscalculated). After the run I discovered two deep gashes left on the sides of my back from my Nathan's hydration backpack. To salvage this issue I cut a small towel and created a softer strap by tightly sewing the rolled up towel around each strap. Looked silly, but, it was all I can think to do to prevent further occurrences. My husband kept commenting that I looked like he beat me. He did not like seeing all the bruising the pack left on my sides. This time, I came home to another unforeseeable chafing issue. One that made me jump from pain the first time I hit the bath. I wore the strap to my heart monitor around my torso for the first time in months and it left red sore chafing marks all around my bra-line. A day later, it's gone, but they are no fun. My big dilemma now is, for my 24-miler, and then for my 50K race itself, how do I wear my heart monitor, which I find very helpful in determining my exhaustion level, and not have it chafe me. Perhaps a more experienced runner can help me here.
Back to my update. The next day, I got up early to supposedly run on tired legs as the training calls and my entire body felt like a truck had run it over, I walked to the bathroom like an injured duck. The 10 mile run planned on 'tired legs' was obviously not going to happen. After much mental debating in bed, I settled with going out for a 2-hour fast walk in the woods of Rock Creek Park (which ended up being for half the mileage) and it was every bit as revitalizing as I thought it would be. But still, I could not shake the bad feeling I got at not being able to complete my official post-long-race run of 10 miles. But I re-framed it in my mind; " I will be fine", I told myself. I have done this training faithfully for 13 weeks now and that 50K race is mine, even if I have to crawl to the finish. Oh, which I am hoping not to do, but, hey....... I will be happy when I see that finish line, no matter what my time....
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