Training day: Long run no. 8

This one was a doozy.

First, it was my first longer-than-I've-ever-run run: 15 miles. Even tracking it on map my run was intimidating.

Second, I was squeezing in a run before an 11:30 phone call, which is normally fine but I just had no idea how long this would take me or if I would survive at all.

Third, I may have had one glass of wine too many, meaning two, the night before during a August birthday celebration so rising was less shiny at 7 a.m.

I repeated by Jamaica Plains run with the added few miles that brought be around and past the Museum of Science along the Charles River.

Figuring that this run would take me more than 2 hours I had to boost my audio support. BUT I couldn't sacrifice another This American Life so I needed an alternative.

Enter: The New Yorker Fiction podcast. I know, I know, it's not exactly the Rocky soundtrack of marathon training but I'm telling you, having people speak to you about sometimes interesting things is fantastically entertaining.

For This American Life I had episode #412 Million Dollar Idea. The first two stories were less exciting but it worked out since they came on when I was still alive and well. The third story, though, about a guy who became obsessed with winning game shows was fabulous. It was sad and weird and made me actually laugh out loud. All good.

For the fiction podcast I chose Joshua Ferris's The Dinner Party as read by Monica Ali. I have to admit that I was not familiar with Monica Ali but she is accented! And that Britishness makes the read so much more enjoyable. I had read Ferris's first nove, Then We Came to the End, a few years ago and LOVED it. It was a bit of a slow build, as a novel about office life might expect to be, but the character development was spot on and the story took some odd and entertaining twists. Beyond all of that it was actually laugh out loud funny. Needless to say, I had some high hopes for "The Dinner Party."

And, for a running story, it was the perfect mix of entertainment. It kept me distracted, it was weird and cringe-worthy and a nice story arch for a short piece. I also liked that Ali and the New Yorker fiction editor discussed the book afterward because they pointed out all the interesting bits that I definitely would have missed as I was trying to put one foot in front of the other.

Besides the ipod, the run started off pleasant. It was sticky hot by 8 so the light sprinkle that met me at mile 5 was more than welcomed. Jamaica Pond was pretty as usual and because it was a weekday it was empty.

Back near the Charles River, where I was getting through the double digit mileage, I had drunk nearly all of my now-hot water and sports drink and was pretty much dying of thirst. Right before the Longfellow Bridge on the Boston side of the river is a water fountain, which I gulped out of for a good three minutes. Water never tasted so good.

By this point - about mile 12 - my legs had been feeling OK. Definitely fatigued but I was getting by. But when I tried to start up again after refueling my legs were not having it. Just a few minutes back into the run my IT band started to flair up, which is NEVER an awesome thing. In fact it's incredibly frustrating because if it really goes you have to just not run to fix it. And in this point of the training not running isn't really recommended.

So, at mile 13 I finally said, fine. I'll walk. So I speed walked and when things got really boring and frustrating I tried running again but IT band said no way Jose.

What began as a good, solid, I'm-not-doing-so-bad run ended up sucking it up.

The good news is that I took the weekend off - three glorious days run free - and when I ran again on Monday and Tuesday my knee was OK. I fully blame the water skiing. That was definitely not well thought out on my part.

So if you're training for a marathon, take my advice and don't do other sports, especially not water skiing. That 30 seconds of standing semi-triumphantly can really bite you in the ass.

Thus,
Distance: 13 miles running + 2 miles speed walking
Time: I'm not even going to try.
Overall: 3 (pros: the audio entertainment, random rain, water fountain savior; cons: the IT band).

xoL