Pushing it

I ran 17.5 miles on Saturday! I almost can’t believe I typed that out.

The Corona-virus has sidelined every major event in the area. Sports are done, school is out, churches are closed and most people are staying in doors for as long as they need to. I guess going outside is OK but the weather is mostly rainy and cold. Saturday was a nice break. It started out cold but the sun came up shortly after we left the store and provided us with a little warmth. I still had on two shirts and cold gear pants though. I think the temperature was around 33 or 34 when we left. Most had on at least a long sleeve shirt and gloves. 

Some crazies had shorts and one guy was out there in a tank top.

I was pleased that Runners World didn’t cancel the event. Instead they spread people out a little further throughout the run. The idea with spreading out is the whole ‘social distancing’ thing, 6 feet (I think) apart. There was no reason to cancel and I’m glad they left it up to each runner to decide for themselves whether or not to show up. The training program through the store breaks everyone into two groups, half marathoners and full marathoners. Often both groups run the same route but the longer marathon group might double up on it. That’s what happened Saturday. The shorter group of half marathoners (of which I’m a part) ran an 8 mile out and back through the heart of Tulsa.

The marathoners did a second loop making it 19 miles after a quick water break and a snack. I planned on stopping with my group after the first route but my brother encouraged me to keep going. “See how much you can get” he said. I intended to get about 2 miles in and turn around. But I went anyway. Two things happened along the way that helped me out. My left knee began to ache in that dull way when you’ve pushed it too far. It wasn’t a sharp oh-no-what-was-that pain, just a muscle begging to stop. I prayed about it. One of those ‘God just get me through this’ kind of things. The throbbing went away. Thank You Lord!

The girl next to me running essentially the same pace gave me a gel pack that tasted like peanut butter and jelly. It did the trick for most of the way. I regained enough strength to carry on until that 17.5 mile mark. The reason I know it was 17.5 is that the runner next to me keeping pace said “Only one and half to go.” I was basically shuffling by this point just trying to keep it together. So I stopped and walked most of the way back with some intermittent running along the way. It must have looked pitiful because I was physically wiped out. I couldn’t have been happier that I pushed it a little bit.

All told I went 19 miles but only ran 17.5. Sometimes it’s good to push it.