A story of going from being a non-runner to planning for a marathon in three years...

Monday, August 30, 2010

Salt Creek Thirteen




This weekend's long run consisted of dragging myself out of bed earlier than I usually get up to go to work, driving to the bike path, and running 13 miles.

How'd it go? It went really well, actually. When I left the house around 7:15 AM it was actually chilly enough that I wore a light jacket over my tank top. Cooler weather is definitely a good sign.

I wasn't super thrilled that I had to use the port-a-potty at the bike path's trail head but you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

The run itself was pretty uneventful. There were a lot of people out on the path at that time of the day. Runners, bikers, and walkers galore. Jason had mentioned something the night before about possibly going to the path for a bike ride, too, so I kept my eye out for him. Playing a game of "is that biker in the distance Jason or not" kept me occupied for most of the second half of the run. I never did see him and found out later that he left the house about the time I was driving home.

My goal was to keep my pace under 10:30 but I took my first mile nice and slow as an easy warm-up mile. I took a one-minute walk break at mile 3. At mile 6.5 I walked and ate some PowerBar Gel Blasts (not very good). I walked again at mile 10 and ate a few more Blasts. The rest of the run felt so good that I admit I briefly thought about trying to hit a half-marathon distance PR but figured that probably wasn't a good plan for a training run. Still, in the end, I ran this training run at almost the same pace I ran my first half marathon.

But guess what I discovered when I got home:



Yes, my very first black toenail. A runner's badge of honor. At least that's what we tell ourselves. I just didn't expect it to hurt quite this much. It didn't hurt at all while I was running, but sleeping on Saturday night was interesting. Every time I put pressure on it I would wake up. Running this week might be fun.

*******************************


Activity
Route:--Elev. Avg:626 ft
Location:Brookfield, ILElev. Gain:+0 ft
Date:08/28/10Up/Downhill: [+429/-429]
Time:07:42 AMDifficulty:3.2 / 5.0
Performance

Distance: 13.03 miles
Time:2:12:27
Speed:5.9 mph
Pace:10' 10 /mi
Calories:1553
Map
 
Elevation (ft)
 
Pace (min/mile)
 
Splits
MilePace (min/mile)Speed (mph)Elevation
Gain
actual+/- avgactual+/- avg
110' 40+0' 305.6-0.3-4 ft
210' 20+0' 105.8-0.1+10 ft
310' 20+0' 105.8-0.1+7 ft
410' 53+0' 435.5-0.4-7 ft
510' 05-0' 056.0+0.0+3 ft
69' 54-0' 166.1+0.2+10 ft
710' 47+0' 375.6-0.3+4 ft
89' 46-0' 246.1+0.2-6 ft
99' 29-0' 416.3+0.4-10 ft
109' 30-0' 406.3+0.4+3 ft
1110' 15+0' 055.8-0.1-7 ft
129' 54-0' 166.1+0.2-7 ft
139' 20-0' 506.4+0.5+3 ft
end9' 30-0' 406.3+0.40 ft
Versus average of 10' 10 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, no! Well, in a weird way, I was always jealous of runners with black toenails...it seemed kind of bad ass! :-) I hope yours heals soon, though. Anything to do with feet or hands can be painful - or maybe I'm a wuss?

Anne said...

Your first black toenail :) Hope it doesn't hurt too much on your next run though...

Good job on that 13-miler...so glad things are going well for you!

kilax said...

Your first black toenail! I should make you a special little badge :)

Ha. Are those the powergel things I gave Steven to give Jason to give to you... did you ever get those?

Did I tell you my scary public toilet story about our bike ride? Can't remember.

Anyway, AWESOME run! Are you sure you want to run Chicago with SLOW me? Ha ha.

P.S. I can't believe the half is less than two weeks away. Doesn't seem like as big of a deal after running 13 this week.

Jessica (Bayjb) said...

Oh man! What causes the black toenail? I've never seen that!!! Glad you had a great run, way to go!

Johann said...

That sounds like a close to perfect run, well done! I have two black toenails at the moment. I’ve had many and just ignore them as far as possible. I’ll take that before a blister any day. Yes, it’s a runner’s badge you can be proud of…

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