Distance: 4 miles
Time: (treadmill mystery time)
Pace: (treadmill mystery pace)
Most Challenging Moment: Forgot to pee before I ran, had to stop mid-run
Most Inspiring Moment: Chicago!
It was great! I got into a treadmill rhythm, I was like a metronome the whole time, I read my book, and I discovered the TV had a virtual run through Chicago! They never quite made it to my old neighborhood (I don't know why) but it was still lovely to see various buildings and streets I recognized.
Look!
There's the bean!
Cute, right? Okay, on with the nightmare.
Distance: 15 miserable miles
Time: Well, my iPhone turned off at 3 hours, 17 minutes, and 4 seconds
Pace: 14:27 min/mil
Most Challenging Moment: ..........
Most Inspiring Moment: It's over.
I knew today was going to be ridiculous. First, I decided to move my run up a day because of more snow. Then I worried about the distance, since I sort of skipped last week's 14-miler, so I was going from 9 miles to a break to 15 miles. And finally, I figured the transition back to pavement from the treadmill was going to lead to some problems.
But this. This. I came home and told Dave that if I had to choose between labor and running this stupid run again, labor would win, hands down.
The day did not start out great. I stayed up later than expected and woke up earlier than expected. I couldn't find my running gloves or hat (they may be still enjoying a vacation at Bretton Woods...). I was in a bad mood just getting out of the house, but once I got out there, I started to relax and enjoy myself. The sidewalks weren't too bad, I was feeling good, and my pace was pretty nice. I had the first episode from latest podcasting phenomenon Invisibilia playing in my ears, and it was early enough that the city still had that beautiful, wintry glow.
I took this photo at the four-mile mark, feeling great, happy to be alive, totally unconcerned that I still had eleven miles to run. And I might have stayed that happy if not for...
...snow.
And ice.
And completely unplowed sidewalks.
I decided to to the entire run along the river, because I was under the impression that the river runs were plowed. This was false. There were portions of the runs that looked as though a plow had run over them, tamping down the snow into a frozen, slippery sheet. There were some parts where the only plowing had clearly come from people's feet, so you maybe had like the width of a sneaker to run through. There were some parts that were just snow, and it was anyone's guess where the sidewalk actually was.
My favorite were the paths that looked as though they had been plowed but had since been filled in with all the frozen, jagged, salty, dirty, giant clumps that had once been in the road. Walking was pretty much impossible, let alone running. From roughly mile 8 until mile 13, I was picking my way through freezing, ankle-twisting piles of snow and ice, running maybe two or three feet, and then having to walk again. It was m i s e r a b l e. At one point Dave called me and I had to channel all of my energy into not telling him to come and pick me up, immediately.
This was not running 15 miles. This wasn't even walking 15 miles. This was trying to keep my balance on shifting, slippery surfaces for three hours. Have I properly conveyed how awful this was?
Usually when I come home, I feel a burst of pride and satisfaction of another good run down in the books, but today I stumbled in, took a half hour shower, and told Dave I was going to lie down in bed and I didn't want to get up until I could feel my ankles.
The only good thing about this run is I'm pretty sure I've hit my bottom. Sleet, rain, negative temperatures--I will happily take them over this. Even if I have to run snowy Boston again (which seems likely), I now know enough to stick to heavily-trafficked and relatively clear sidewalks, rather than the tundra-like boonies of the river run. Chalking it up to a learning experience and let us not speak of it anymore.
Now I'm going to make myself mac n cheese and cookies for dinner.
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