Sunday Long Run, that had to be cut short

First, I'm going to say that I was very sad to hear about David Bowie's passing. May he rest in peace. A little music to remember him by.

Yesterday, after lots of birthday celebrations for my son, we headed out for what was to be our 13 mile long run, only it wasn't.

Birthday Cake for Love Nugget

Rosca De Reyes

The day's weather was all completely unexpected. The morning was cloudy and dark, with some scarce showers through the morning. We went to lunch and it was warm (for January) and sunny, then all of the sudden it was cloudy, dark and windy. We dressed for light rain, windy and cold and headed out.

We started running a bit later than we wanted. My son goes back with his Dad at 4:00 on the Sundays he is with me, so I have to run after dropping him off. I was dressed and ready, and arrived at our starting point at 4:10 pm, we were to start running immediately, but got delayed with waiting for a coffee, to leave in the car and sip in stops after water. I was very sleepy after sitting home most of the day.

We started running at 4:30 in Camp Hill, which is a small and quiet town, with lots of different hills and flats for running.

Roger and I got into a little spat about my training, he thinks I run my long runs too fast and gets on my case about it. Telling me over and over that I'm supposed to take my runs slower. I keep telling him that I'm taking them as slow as I can without just making them a brisk walk. I am not a fast runner, my best mile has been 7.47 and that was knowing that I would only be doing 1 mile, and gave it my all. I tend to average an 8:10 for 5Ks, 9:15 for 10K and did a 10:30 for the Half Marathon. My long runs average 9:30-10:45 min/miles.

So after our spat, I decided I would go slower for this run, and Roger was able to keep up with me most of the run. But I didn't enjoy it, and looking back, I wish I would have gone at what I wanted to go.

The weather by then was cold, and getting very windy. We headed to a different section of Camp Hill, past a park and by really nice houses. We found some steep hills, which was a nice change of route. We headed back and out again to another section of Camp Hill before the sun went down.

Most of the streets were empty, as we ran through houses I saw lots of people sitting by their TV watching football games. I don't watch a lot of TV, and knew that I was happy to be out running, even if it was in the cold and strong wind.

The sun went down by 5:00pm, but we were able to get in a good 5 miles before it got dark.

By mile 5, we were back at our parking spot, Roger wanted to change his clothes, so in wanting to wait for him, I ran around the block 2 times and did one more mile. But I was starting to get really tired and really cold. Going slower had caused to be very tired, very tired of running slower than my normal and having to stop and go as I waited.

At 7.6 miles Roger was still next to me, and we still had 5+ miles to go, but the wind was blowing really hard on our backs and our faces. I had no motivation to run another slow 5 miles.

It was at this point when I was done. My knee had started to hurt, my legs were really cold, but my chest was hot and sweaty. We ran the 0.40 miles back to the car and called it a night.

Looking back, I wish that I would have kept with my pace, and gone the distance I wanted to. I wish that I could have at least finished 10 miles.

This is something I will have to remind myself about... run at my pace and my miles, not run to what Roger wants me to, or try to stay at his speed, his speed is too slow for me, and it's tiring to try to keep up with him. But it is very motivating to know that he is behind me, and that he has to catch up with me, that keeps me moving. He has helped me a lot and I still listen to his ideas on training, but I am also in this for myself.