On Sunday,
I ran a new personal furthest: 18
miles. While there were many breaks
along the way to refuel and have the energy to continue, I survived. This was one of the toughest runs I have had
during my training regimen. I typically
run first thing in the morning, but today I ran after my morning shift around
11:00 am. The other issue was that I had
arrived back in Philadelphia from Brooklyn late at night. I was tired and in a rush to make it home on
time for my work at the Philadelphia Union game.
To complete
the 18-mile route, I began my run along the Schuylkill River Trail heading
south along the boardwalk toward South Street.
I always like to begin my runs on that trail because it is an easy three
miles to begin. I live across the river
from the trail and it is very quick for me to make it there to start the
run. Next, I continued my run going
north along the Schuylkill River and wound up in Manyunk before turning around. The Philadelphia Marathon route goes along
Kelly Drive up to Manyunk for the second half of the run, so I want familiarize
myself with the trail before running it for real on November 22.
To my
surprise, there was a major high school crew regatta. I spent the first part of the run dodging
rowers, fans, parents, boats, and golf carts.
It felt like I was running on an obstacle course! There were so many people walking around and
did not pay a lick of attention to me.
Several times, I was almost hit by a boat or run over by the golf carts
taking fans along the river. Around mile
six, a biker passed me and fell. I went
to help him up, but he ended up being okay, maybe he had a few bruises. It felt more dangerous to run rather than
enjoy the day.
Going back
to me preferring morning runs—it began to heat up temperature-wise and I began
to get tired easily. It got so hot that
I took off my shirt for the past couple of miles. I have not been used to running in that hot
of temperature since the summer, and even then, I was not running that
long. From the start, it was not my day
to run, but I pushed through.
