Start time: 8/26/07, 6:30am
Location: National Mall & Cap Crescent Trail
Distance: 18 miles
Average pace: 9:46min/mile

The moral of this Sunday’s attempted 20-mile run? Some elements of bad runs are avoidable and others are not, so it’s important to figure out which ones are and take the appropriate steps. Unavoidable on Sunday for me was the weather; while nowhere near as bad as Saurday, it was still hot and incredibly humid. At one point I described the run as “carving your way through the air up the trail” and no one disputed that claim. When at mile 2 you already look like you’ve fallen into the river? Not good.

Unfortunately, I made two mistakes that really could have been avoided. The first has to do with the fact that I normally get up about two hours before a long run, which gives me enough time to shower, shave, eat breakfast, and most importantly use the bathroom about 5 times. I’d gotten to bed later than planned on Saturday night, so instead of setting the alarm for 4:30am, I set it for 5am in order to get a little more sleep. The problem was, that meant a couple of less bathroom breaks. I thought I’d be ok… well, no. Around mile 10 I started having an upset stomach, and at mile 14 (where on the Capital Crescent Trail we would turn around for a 6 mile run back to home base) I felt bad enough that I had to stop. And really, an upset stomach can mean so many different things that it’s hard to really diagnose. It wasn’t until I’d stopped for about 15 minutes that I figured out the problem was one that a bathroom would need to solve. Lo and behold, that did the trick.

The second was that after stopping at mile 14, because I thought I was done, I didn’t really keep moving. I stood around and talked with Christa for a bit, waited for the next group to show up, and so forth. So once I did finally start running again… everything was sore and stiff and never really loosened back up. *sigh* At mile 18 I finally gave up and called it a day. So close, and yet so far. Ah well.

Next time? Well, at least it will be a different set of mistakes to make instead. I was pretty mad at myself, partially because I wanted to finish the run out with Paul, Dvora, and Laura, partially because I’d had such a good 18 miler, and partially because so long as I can remember I’ve only had to stop short on 3 long runs over the course of 7 years. At the time on Sunday, it felt like a horrible, horrible defeat.

Live and learn, live and learn.