Daily Wahnsinn

I don’t know how, but somehow I ended up running 13.5 miles today. Without stopping. At a 10 min/mile pace. That’s a half marathon. And it’s ridiculous.

To say I’m proud (and amazed!) of myself is quite the understatement.

My last long run was a wonderful 12.3 miles and today I was determined to go a little farther. With last weekend’s race, my mileage has been a little lower, so today I felt fresh and ready to push (spoiler: until I actually headed outside). The goal was to do 13.1 miles, half-marathon distance. My first half isn’t until April, but I wanted to see whether I could do it, whether I was strong and fit enough.

I had a hearty breakfast and headed out at 12:30. My Garmin couldn’t find a signal and given the cold, I started to get annoyed. The last thing I wanted to do was to stand around in the cold and freeze my ass off, especially given the amount of time I was going to be out there! I eventually did find a signal, but it must have been a weak one. By the time I reached what my Garmin indicated as the first mile, I knew that it was not yet the first mile marker. It seemed about 0.4 miles off. This never happened to me before.

Uploading my data to Garmin Connect then confirmed that something was not right. I do have the super powers, apparently, running through houses and stuff. It’s quite funny.

The first few miles were a bit awful. I was cold, it took me quite a while to heat up, my knee hurt a little and I generally just did not want to be out there. This is a common theme for me. Whenever I do long runs, the first few miles are not enjoyable. My mantra today was Don’t think. Just do. A little Yoda, isn’t it? It worked though and I was able to push through all the rough stretches. The miles passed by as I ran my usual routine (full loop, 3 times around the Reservoir, off to the Bridle Path) and around mile three, I actually thought to myself Only 10 more, that’s not too bad. That’s when I realized that I’m quite possibly a crazy person.

After a while I really got into this run. My pace was steady, the dreaded Harlem Hills didn’t feel as tough as they usually do and even the soft, rolling hills after the Harlem Hills (my least favorite part of CP) didn’t seem quite as awful. I did have occasional thoughts of wanting to stop and walk, but I didn’t let myself and told myself to not think and just do. The Reservoir was blissfully empty, possibly due to the cold and the fact that there had been very light snowfall in NY this morning.

Some time around mile 9.5 though, things started getting tough. I don’t know what it was, but I started checking my Garmin every few minutes, hoping that the miles just magically appeared and I could be done. I was soaked in sweat, I was getting a little hungry and I was so not in the mood for it. Apparently, my brain though translated this into Run faster, it’ll mean you’ll be done sooner. I’ll take that, I guess.

Mile 9.5 was also the point where I’d just completed my third loop around the Reservoir and was off onto the Bridle Path. The Bridle Path is a dirt road as opposed to the Main Drives’ asphalt. I usually like the change from asphalt to dirt, but today my legs were screaming at me. Every single muscle started hurting.

As I finally reached mile 11, I was determined that I’d finish the last two miles and break my record of longest run ever. I was not going to stop, slow or walk.

I was at 11.5 when I closed the loop where I usually head out of CP, so I decided some more mileage was needed. I planned on stopping in the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle to grab a latte from one of my favorite bakeries, so I wouldn’t have the bonus of the extra 0.5 miles home. I ran the lower loop again (yay, more hills!) and then, because I’m a dork and I knew my Garmin was off a little and I didn’t want to take any chances, I ran that tiny, tiny loop you see at the bottom. It actually meant that the actual number of miles I ran went over the 13.1 I had planned. My Garmin ended up not being as much off I had thought.

Once I finally reached the Time Warner Center and hit Stop on my Garmin and Nike app, I was so happy, I wanted to jump. I would have probably if my whole body hadn’t been aching so bad. I got my coffee and then headed home. Since I was so soaked in sweat, it was freezing cold. I understand why the give away blankets after marathons!

Here are the overall results:

Splits (from Runkeeper, where I fixed the additional miles that Garmin added)

For miles 1 and 14, I stopped at a bunch of traffic lights. Pretty happy with my pace and that it’s mostly consistent.

Overall stats from Garmin:

Extremely happy with the average moving pace. You go, Supergirl! :)

Quick question about Garmin: When it was off because it couldn’t find a strong signal at first, it ended up adding about 0.25 miles to my run; instead of the 13.48 that I mapped out in Runkeeper, Garmin says I ran 13.71. I found how to edit the actual miles I ran. But does anybody know whether there is a way to edit the actual map so that my splits can be accurate?