10 Miles and a 10K

10 miles + 10 kilometers = 16 miles

I was really nervous going into this one because of last week's fiasco when I wasn't able to run the 14 miles. But I did it, and it wasn't bad at all and I will do it again, and then some.

It was one of those runs where I was lost in thought and just along for the run. I ran the sac and fox trail which is 7.2 miles long. My goal was to run the trail, run about a mile out and then head back giving me 16 miles total. Goals sometimes have to be rearranged though.

There is a port o potty at the half way point, 3.6 miles, which I made use of. Then at 5.6 miles I realized I needed to go again. Unfortunately the city parks department has decided that they don't need facilities at the trail heads, just at the half way point for some reason. I had to go bad enough that I tried calling Jason from the trail head to have him come pick me up and take me to a potty but he wasn't answering the phone, something to do with singing the abc song with our daughter?!? Anyhow, my only choice was to cut out the extra mile and head back as quickly as I could. I seriously considered finding a bush and going behind it but I was wearing a bright blue sweatshirt over a bright blue long sleeve shirt. Anyone coming up the trail would have seen me from any distance and would have known what I was doing and I just didn't have the guts to do it. I can't tell you how relieved I was to make it see that port o potty!!!

My knee didn't give me a bit of trouble the whole run. It was a little bit stiff every time I sat down to empty the multitude of rocks out of my shoes, but no pain. Unfortunately my calf wasn't so generous. About mile 14 I started getting some cramps in my calf that would then radiate down my leg.

Christie had mentioned that I might want to run 15 miles instead of 16 miles because I didn't get the 14 in last week, and in any case she said I shouldn't run over three and a half hours. In fact all the literature that I'm reading mentions that three and a half hours should be the cut off for training runs. I seriously considered stopping at 15 miles because of the cramping in my calf and the fact that I hit 15 miles ... at my car ... at 3:30:00 (or really close). But after missing the 14 last week I really needed to be able to say that I ran 16 miles so I headed back onto the trail for that last mile. It was the slowest I ran all day, but I did it, I ran 16 miles and I was proud of it!!!

Running Stats

Running Time: 3:47:08
Running Distance: 16.00 mi
Average Pace: 14:12/mi