Long Run Wednesday: Where would YOU go?

This was ultimately a good long run day, although I had my challenges. Here's my route. I'm calling it the "make peace with the river" route. For a while I just had a mental block about the river. I never ran there and then the one time I did (thanks Ragnar) the running path was under construction (boo!) and I was so sick I felt like I was going to die. And then the next time I ran there was the 20-miler I ran in preparation for the marathon. (The 20-miler was so bad I apparently didn't even blog about it.)

I'm trying to replace those memories with some good ones so I enjoy that part of the marathon. I had a nice run with Beth and Jenna a couple weeks ago and today was also ultimately a positive experience. I had some, um, digestive issues which added excitement and an unexpected opportunity for sprint intervals but did not discourage me from the river. (At least I know where the port-a-pots are now.)

Here's how the run went:

• 5:00am: My alarm clock woke me up by playing I am superman (link plays sound). Said song only plays on days I need to get up and run and said song is not allowed to be snoozed. (Hey, it works for me.)


• 5:05am: "Hmmm. Peanut Butter would be a great pre-run snack. Oooh look, here's a spoon. Good enough for me."


• 5:15am-ish: Here I go.


• Miles 1-2: "Wow, it's early. And I'm not going to get to see the sunrise over a lake. I wonder what it looks like over a river."


• Miles 2-5: "Oh, pain. Oh, it's ok. There's a port-a-pot coming up in this next parking lot." As I arrive at the parking lot, "how is it not here?" Ultimately that problem was solved because it was in the next lot about a block away.


• Mile 5: This is mostly the Lake Street/Marshall Ave bridge. I'm afraid of heights. It actually worked out because the sidewalk is wide enough I was able to stay away from the edge.


• Miles 6-9: This stretch is in St Paul and starts with one of the several hills I'm going to have to make peace with in the marathon. I'd seen this hill before the peacemaking it going well. (Although I've never tried to make peace with after running 20 miles.) It looks steeper and longer than it feels when running up it.


• Miles 10-11: "Dude, I can see my breath!" which was shortly followed by "there's that discomfort again". At which point I started mentally noting where all the possible stopping points could be. That was quickly followed by, "oh, I guess I am going to get to see a lake today". I took a little detour over to Lake Nokomis which had some facilities to meet my needs. It wound up adding about half-mile onto the run and an opportunity for some sprint intervals.
  


• Mile 12: From 44th street to 42nd street is a steady down-hill path and I love getting up a good head of steam on that part. It's fun that it comes at the end of the run. I didn't going as fast as I would at the end of a 6-miler but I did get going.


• After the run: I thought about taking an ice-bath but ultimately decided I was already too cold to sit in a tub of ice. Based on what I saw of the weather last night, I'd expected it to be about 50* by the time I got back. When I checked the actual temperature it was 43*. No ice-bath was completely the right choice.

It's a good thing I burned like 1,800 calories before breakfast because I ate out at lunch and at dinner. For lunch I went with a colleague to The Highland Grill, the only one of the Blue Plate restaurants that still sees Vegetarian Chili-Mac. I didn't get it but I should have. For dinner Amanda and I went to Ngog, a fancy little place in Frogtown. Apparently it's so new Google doesn't even know about it. I think I'm giving my teenager a ride home from work but she hasn't called me yet so I'm not sure.