A Redding Long Run

"If I'm not feeling good the first miles of the marathon, remind me of this run," I said to Matt as I glanced down at my watch. "Six and three quarters miles and I'm just now beginning to feel like I can finish this run."  Lately, many of my runs have felt this way.  My body feels sluggish to respond to the physical movements of running, especially the morning ones.

Matt and I decided on a change of scenery for our final long run and found ourselves on the Sacramento River Trail in Redding. Whenever I run long here, I always wish our area had a path like this one. Long runs that aren't broken up by a dozen or more stop lights are so nice. I can focus on my legs, my head, and the scenery without having to be fully alert like I do on the road.

Training for CIM this year has been a lot less structured. September was mostly maintaining and increasing my fitness base, October and these first three weeks of November were the "structured" portion with pace based workouts and speedwork. I've run more on feel than I have in the past and I feel good about the training, even though it is different. We'll see what happens on race day.

The weather was perfect for our run. I remembered back to the half I ran here in October where I overheated. I really love the cool and cloudy days. The fall colors were just past their peak, carpeting the path in maroon and gold. Through that inevitable fatigue and slight blurred vision of staring too long at the ground whizzing by, the vibrant colors swirled magically around like a kaleidoscope. Trippy.

Before I knew it, we were approaching 18 miles. At the beginning of the run, I had hoped to pick up the last few miles if I felt good. This time I did.

I hurled myself up and over that steep hill that I usually have to walk. My legs grew heavy and I slouched, but soon it was over and I found myself running strong. Nearing mile 20, my energy and determination began to fade.

I asked Matt to tell me a story. About this same distance in my first marathon, I asked for him to tell me a story, which has turned into a wonderful tradition we share, including the same principal characters: Princess Karen and her cat, Puffball.  They go on adventures everywhere, often relating to our life in some way. This time, Puffball and Karen began a hobby farm and got some chickens.  Puffball grew impatient and hungry for a taste; just one, she begged, but Karen refused. She enlisted the help of some local raccoons.  You can imagine where the story went from there.  Matt's stories are the best with their colorful description and sarcastic humor, they are always so perfectly timed to end right as we finish a tough run.

Later that afternoon, the skies opened and pouring rain fell from the sky in buckets.  We managed to complete our long run during three of the five dry hours of the entire day. It pays to be married to the weatherman. He's got all the inside knowledge. ;)

After a long run, I like to keep moving. If I sit down for too long, I fall asleep for hours and don't sleep at night.  Instead, we took advantage of the big city (relative term, haha) shopping.  On days like this, I find myself inexplicably drawn to the pillow aisles and places like this:

That's a tent full of inflated sleeping pads. I had to decide between that and a giant pile of clearance priced sleeping bags. Torture.

I stayed awake because I knew we had saved the best for last:

Do you have anything in particular you like to do after a long run? Do you rest with your feet up or do you stay moving until bedtime?