Shaking Hands and Smiling at Babies

After last week's 16-miler I decided to go back to smarter preparation for some of these long runs.  With that in mind, I went to the local Teeter Friday night in search of a healthy late-night meal because I had nothing in the fridge.  After walking around for about ten minutes in a confused and agitated state, I left for the local watering hole, where I ate six spicy chicken wings and drank about five beers.  Oops.  The next day I rolled out of bed at 5:45 a.m. to meet Mike Oelz and David Brinkley for what would soon be my longest run ever - 18 miles.

We came up with a good plan to take on Gu gel and water during this run.  I parked my car at Trader Joe's next to the greenway and waited for Oelz to pick me up.  We loaded my ride with water and gel and drove over to the Highway 51 entrance to the McMullen Greenway, where Brinkley was waiting.  It was still pretty dark and cold.  I was rocking a dry-fit long-sleeved shirt and a pair of Patrick Mannelly's Duke football shorts over my short running shorts.  We planned to run past my car and pick up about 12 miles before taking the Gu and water and finishing the final six.  The greenway was crowded as usual and Brinkley took it upon himself to shout, "Good Morning!" at every single runner, walker, and baby jogger we passed.  After awhile we noticed people stopped saying it back and Brinkley joked that we had crossed over into the more snooty section of the greenway.  Yes, the property value creeps up a bit as ya get closer to Rea Road. 

We were logging well under 8-minute pace per mile as we ran past my car and to the end of the greenway, then darted through some of the Piper Glen neighborhoods, down 51, and back up Rea.  In order to hit 12 miles by the time we got back to my car we realized we needed to improvise, so we wound through Piper Glen and eventually found ourselves on the golf course.  The three amigos got in some good, steep, up-and-down hill running and even jogged down a few fairways (Fore!!!!).  We were all feeling good and I was extremely thankful to have David and Mike around after last week's dreadful solo long run.  I made a mental note to not do any more long runs by myself.

We got back to the car and I stripped down to my running shorts as we all took some gel and water, then hopped back on the greenway and proceeded to pick up the pace.  Brinkley, he of the almighty Garmin watch, shouted out that we were running 7:20 pace at one point, which led to some loud grumbling amongst the crowd.  Rabble!  Rabble rabble!  I tried to calm everyone down, saying that it was awesome we didn't realize we were going that fast and everyone agreed it was a good sign.  With a little over three miles to go I got fussed at for picking up the pace, but I was feeling good, and David stayed right with me.  I was waiting for my body to hit a wall but it never happened.  I felt fantastic.  Regardless of what happens from here on out I know I'll look back on today's long run as one of the better moments in my training.  It was a nice confidence booster after having a crappy long run and a blown workout in my recent memory.

I accidentally zeroed my watch at one point but David was kind enough to e-mail me our mile splits, which went as follows:  7 minutes 53 seconds, 748, 747, 750, 743, 743, 742, 738, 800, 817, 755 (these were on the hilly golf course), 741, 744, 739 (I'm getting tired just typing this), 720, 717, 707, and 701.  It's a great feeling to see those negative splits at the end.  A 7:01 mile at the end of an 18-mile run?  I'll take it.  Maybe I should do the beer-and-wings combo the night before the marathon?  In all seriousness I at least made sure to do the right thing after this run by drinking plenty of water, taking exra time to stretch, and devouring a huge breakfast before I took a nap.

Hopefully today's run is a positive sign of things to come.  We shall soon find out!