Happy Two Year Runnerversary: I Went for a Long Run on Vacaton

Sunrise over the Atlantic

The last few weeks have been a complete struggle for me.  I have been struggling to find the motivation to complete my training. However, I think I found it in the most unexpected place.

Last week I spent the week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  This is a trip that I take every year and look forward to the next year from the moment we leave the beach.  The part that has always made me sad about this vacation, is that it signifies the end of the summer and that colder months are knocking at our door.  However, since I have become a distance runner I am not as sad as I once used to be: cooler temperatures mean better running and right now I NEED better running!!  

I know that I am not alone in the fact that this summer has been BRUTAL in terms of heat and humidity.  Most people that I’ve talked to have said that their training has suffered and that they have had to cut multiple long runs short because it was just too much.  I have cut more runs this season than I care to admit and I am struggling to believe that I will be ready for my marathon on November 6. The farthest I have run this season is the 13.1 miles I did in the Outer Banks. 

I decided to do my long run on the second day of vacation.  My original plan was to do 12 miles, I was going to leave the house at 6:30, run 3 miles out and back and pick up Adam (my brother in law) for company on the last 6 miles.  That morning my alarm went off at 5:30 am, which is totally NOT FAIR on a vacation morning but I knew that with the temperature already at 83 degrees with 92% humidity it was already going to be a struggle.  As I prepared for my run I started giving myself a mental pep talk, I could do this, I WAS GOING to do it, and that I would feel so amazing after it was done. 

I headed out around 6:45 (yes, I left a little later than planned), put on my running play list, set my watch to my intervals and I was off.  The first half mile was through the neighborhood to get to the path.  It was trash day and all of the trash from the weekend departures was sitting on the curb, which meant one thing... BUGS and lots of them.  I spent the first ¾ of a mile swatting bugs, getting bitten and cursing.  I wanted to give up, I wanted to go back and crawl back into bed and (possibly) try again tomorrow.  I did not give up!

As I was running, some of my running friends were sending me texts of encouragement.  I would text back complaining and whining and they kept sending me motivational text messages throughout my run.  I have the most amazing friends!! 

I knew that this was going to be my longest solo training run to date and that I was going to want to blog about it, so I started making making little videos of what I was thinking at any given time so that I could remember the run.  I made about 6 of these videos (I am not posting them, they are embarrassing), some of them were of me saying things like: “This f**king sucks!” “Why am I doing this?” Then the videos morphed into more positive messages as I got further and further along.

I finally hit Mile 3 of my run and I was  beginning to feel a lot better.  I looked at my watch and realized that if I turned around, I still wouldn’t make it back by the time I told Adam I would be back.  Knowing myself, and knowing that I can be easily swayed to cut a long run short (nobody said I was perfect), and knowing that Adam wasn't thrilled about the prospect of a 6 mile run (not to mention that he is twice as fast as I am), I made the executive decision to keep pushing it further out, Adam would just have to understand (thankfully he did). 

Right before Mile 4, there was a TON of police activity on the road and I almost turned back.  However, there were other runners running past the police and I decided to keep going. I did stop to be nosy, and asked a lady walking her dog if she knew what was up.  She told me that someone ran their car into a sign post in the middle of the night and then took off on foot to the beach when the police arrived.  Apparently there was an all-out manhunt going on and the police were letting people by on the main road but they weren’t letting anyone through to the beach.  I thanked her for filling me in and kept going. I was also too chicken to take a photo. 

The hill at mile 4... what a beast! 

Around mile 4 and about 15 minutes before I was supposed to pick up Adam for our 6 miles, I called him to tell him where I was. I told him if he wanted to run, he should just go and I’d see him somewhere along the way.  He opted not to run and I kept pushing forward. 

The view from the path around mile 5. 

At this time I was approaching the end of the path, the path was 5 miles long, and I knew that I was going to have to turn back.  I had to start devising a plan so that I could complete my planned 12 miles without reaching the house first.  As I was lost in thought, and my running playlist, I became suddenly aware of someone right next to me... I turned and saw a girl that I had seen a few minutes before running the other direction.  She looked and me and said “This f**king sucks, doesn’t it?”  I told her yes and we started chatting.  I told her that I was on mile 5 of a 12 mile run and I was struggling.  She told me how impressed she was, she had set out to do more than she was doing and turned around at a mile and a half because it was miserable.  It’s funny where you find encouragement to get a run done, this stranger was my encouragement.  She was noticeably faster than me, but she was impressed at the distance that I was running. That was the push I needed, I decided in that moment that I was going to run 13.1 miles that day. Because as I say in one of the videos I made: "Why not run a half marathon on a random Monday at the beach?' 

This guy wanted a race, I knew he'd beat me so I declined. 

At mile 5, I said goodbye to my running partner and turned around.  I knew that there was police activity at mile 3.5 and I didn’t want to have to run through that more than I had to, so I decided that I was going run to mile 8.5, turn around and run back a mile and a half before turning around and heading home.  This worked out amazingly; mile 7 to mile 8.5 was totally shaded and felt cooler than the other parts of the path.  However, shade means trees and trees mean SPIDERS!! For whatever reason, this year in the Outer Banks the amount of spiders rivaled what I imagine Australia is like.  No joke, there was one cluster of 4 bushes that had 12 giant spider webs in them and it was terrifying!  I’d like to think that this made me run faster, it did not I just kept feeling like I was covered in spiders.  

This is just ONE of the spiders and webs that I saw. 

There were a lot of other details about this run that I wanted to write about, but as I am writing this, none of them seem as important as this moment...  right around mile 10 I had a complete and total mental shift about the marathon.  It’s amazing when you can pinpoint the moment you just KNEW you were going to do it and that you don’t have to be perfect.  I pulled out my camera and recorded a video pep talk for myself.  In that video I say:  “It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you are in NYC, you are running a marathon, you will finish the marathon, you struggled through the hardest running days of the year, you are strong and you will finish it.” 

Now, a week and a half later, I look at that video and guess what? I still believe it! I am not trying to qualify for Boston, I am not racing anyone (except maybe 2015 MCM Emily), I am running the NYC marathon to experience running the NYC marathon.  I am running NYC because TWO years ago I would’ve LAUGHED at you if you told me I was going to be training for my SECOND marathon.  Two years ago I smoked and liked beer a lot (ok, I still like beer a lot, but in moderation); two years ago I started running and could barely run a damn mile; two years ago I was “training” for a 5k and that was my only goal; two years ago I became addicted to running. 

Sometimes I lose my motivation and forget why I am training and running in the first place.  Then I envision the finish line of a race and how amazing that last quarter of a mile feels and the feeling of accomplishment when the medal is placed around my neck.  I remember that two years ago I couldn’t even imagine that I would come this far.  Two years ago I was the guy that says: “You ran 26 miles? I don’t even like to drive that far.”  I remember that I am not only a runner, I am a distance runner and that’s pretty awesome... HAPPY TWO YEAR RUNNERVERSARY TO ME!! 

Jumping in the pool after a long run makes everything better!!

Not my fastest run, probably my slowest run to be honest