It's pretty amazing how sometimes you can do everything wrong and things work out, and do everything right and they don't. This is true in running as well as in life. I remember my long run 2 weeks ago - my calves were sore before we even started, we got up at the God-awful time of 4 am, and my bedtime snack the night before was a big ice cream cone. But I made it 15 miles with, in retrospect, relatively few problems.
Today I had plans for an 18 miler, my longest to date, and my last long run before the marathon. In preparation for this run I'd been taking it easy (no long run for 2 weeks and no footwear changes). My legs felt great and I was ready to go at 5:20 this morning. The weather was also in my favor - a cool 50 degrees - perfect runing weather.
I met Margaret at the one mile point and we headed for an 8 mile loop in the park reserve. Those first 8-9 miles went great, but things started to fall apart at mile 10. My legs were sore/tired/sluggish, and my feet hurt as well. I'm sure Margaret was a little frustrated (although she didn't show it) because I kept making us stop to stretch. I stopped at my house at mile 13.5 to change shoes and take some Advil. Even that didn't help and by mile 15 I called it quits. My IT band started to hurt petty badly that last mile and I know from experience not to push that one.
I walked a mile and a half home, so **technically** I did 16.5 miles, but I really only ran 15. The competitor in me wants to go out later today and run that last 3 miles, but intuitively I know that may not be the best thing for my legs. They just don't want to run today!
Running with a partner is good in many ways. The miles fly by when you're distracted by talking, and a partner will push you to go farther and faster than you would on your own. But having a running partner also means letting down someone other than yourself if you're not running well. And you can't hide your failures if you're not alone (although I guess that by blogging this, I'm not doing much hiding anyway).
As much as I'm disappointed, I am not defined by my training runs. OK, I may not even be defined by my marathon performance. People will still like me even if I don't meet my running goals. Right?
The Twin Cities Marathon is on October 2, in 25 days. I'm not going to do any more long runs, as I am starting my "taper" before the big race. I hope that I can at least gut it out for 26.2 miles, even if my body feels otherwise. Or better yet, maybe October 2 will be the day my legs decide to show up and put on the performance of their life. All I know is that I cannot predict how a run, any run, will go. We'll just have to see what happens.
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