A Grueling 18 Miles

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.