The Half Marathon was over and the rest of my training run was ready to begin. I jumped back onto the course with my own water. I felt guilty drinking the water because I would hate for the marathon walkers to run out of water because the calculation of water didn't include an unregistered marathon runner. My original idea was to use the course water, but I couldn't do it. The part of the course I jumped on was a group of backward runners, joggers, and the fastest being a 11:00 runner/walker. I felt bad passing people because I didn't want to make them feel slow. I found an opening to cut the course by crossing the street and jumped since I wasn't doing the full marathon and only needed 20 miles. The timing was perfect for the pace I wanted. Most where going about 9:00 to 9:30 with stranglers dropping here and there. It was mile 22 in the course. Whenever I encountered somebody on the course that was walking I would grab their arm and make them run. Most appreciated and only one refused. I believe I got about 10 runners to continue on their merry way. About mile 24 there was one guy that was a bit more tired because his goal was 3:30 and the heat took more of a toll then expected. Instead of sticking to my 10:00 on the dot I slowed down a bit and stuck with him. He wanted to ensure that he still got 4:00 hours which mean he still has to run to the finish. He called me his angel, and that made my day for the second time. I had to let him go at mile 26 because I couldn't cross the line twice. He made it in 4:00:30, so I am not sure if that was 30 short of 30 within is second goal. I am going to call it a goal maker, because according to Boston standards it is a goal maker. That was the start of my high mileage week.
Monday was a rest day. Tuesday and Wednesday where back to back two hour runs on a trail. Tuesday was a learning experience. Once you start running on a trail you cannot just stop running and fix a problem. You are stuck in what ever situation you have created for yourself. I didn't remember to bring socks. I knew this before I started running as I thought about wearing the sock I had on at work or no socks. I have run without sock numerous times, just nothing more than five miles. I chose the no socks methods. Do not do this in Brooks Ghost as the back is high and is not sock free friendly. Both feet ending up with blisters on the back and one blister on the bottom of my right foot. The blisters on the back did not keep
the skin in tact, instead they bleed out. During the run this didn't really hurt until I walked for a couple of minutes at the end. Running in pain is easy. Walking in pain is not. This was Tuesday. I knew the next day was going to be an interesting experience. I left my mole skin at work and couldn't use it on the run so I used band aids. They do not help with pain, but could keep more blood from ruining my socks. It took me about 30 minutes before I could shut off the pain. Then I was all good, because instead of the pain I was dealing with a very hot day in the everglades.Thursday was a rest day, which was plenty of time for healing to occur. Blistered fixed. Friday was an easy hour run. Saturday was my first run longer than the distance of a marathon. This was exciting because I get to cover more area on my newly found trail run. I wanted to go as far as I could, which meant I had to find a way to carry as much water as possible. Drinking for the everglades is not recommended. There is one stop at Atlantic and a second stop at Markham park. I new I would hit Atlantic, but I did not know what kind of water would be available as it was end of the road and I didn't see any buildings. Markham Park was out because I would not reach that far and keep my run at five hours. When I hit Atlantic I realized there was not way to refill. I was left with what I had. I had my camel pak, Nathan belt with 20 oz, and a hand held 20 oz. I should be good. I starting drinking less water because I wanted to make sure I was good. I had plenty left. An hour later I met up with other runners and they said Markham Park was only about 4 miles away. That meant water was only adding a mile and half to my run. Well worth it, so I knew I had plenty of water to drink as much as my stomach could handle. It was gone by the time I hit Markham park. I refilled and made returned to trail for my return. Cool new people. I don't remember their names though, I forgot before I even finished our conversation. Maybe they will remember mine. The return was fun and I was still full of energy. For an hour I got to do 1 minute running at 7:30's and four minutes running at 10:00 no walk breaks. I like no walk breaks. Then after an hour I started my running for 15 minutes at 9:00 and walk for one minute. This was to be the next hour and the end of the workout. I made the first set, and didn't like it. The second set I slowed down and won't say where I went because it wasn't running. The walking for a minute even got slower. It started getting hot and I was sunburned. Instead of wearing sunscreen I decided to absorb more vitamin D. You hear a lot of runners that wear sunscreen so much that they lack vitamin D and get stress fractures. I was just looking out for my future. Just kidding, that was another bad idea. I am wearing sunscreen tomorrow. Anyway, I committed to running the extra mile and half and I was going to run the rest with 10/1. This changed as soon as I finished the workout. I walked and jogged to keep my average at 13:30 for the last two miles. This Saturday was my first thought that I was screwed on race day. I didn't like the end and keeping a slow pace was difficult. I did not see myself wanting to add another 30 miles in more heat then what I was experiencing that day. Maybe food will help next time. So for tomorrow sock, sunscreen, and food.
