Training Wall Hit Again, Marathon Looms

Sunday I set out on a long run, intending to go as far as I could go, possibly even up to marathon distance (26.2 miles). The weather was conducive (in the low 50's throughout), I had no externally-imposed time limits to my run, and I had just broken in a pair of new, well-cushioned running shoes on Friday. I was determined to break through the 20-mile barrier from my Christmas run, beyond which I was then unable to continue.

Everything went quite well until I reached the same damned point in my run, and WHAM!...I ran smack into the "wall" again. I said to myself, "Self, this isn't going to work, you're just not cut out to run a marathon, just stick with the half-marathons". I changed my course to go directly home, but as I entered the final full block, a loose, ferocious pit bull began to bark at me from down the street and chase me. Before I got any closer, I turned around and ran the other way, marveling at how inconsiderate some neighbors can be and how little they must care about their dogs' welfare to allow them to run loose like that. I managed to detour around the next block and reach home. Although the dog incident at the run's end angered me, the result of it all was that I ended up marginally running my longest distance ever: 20.75 miles, with a time of 3:23:47.

I hadn't registered yet for January 23's Ocala Marathon, so I thought I might just run in the half-marathon event there instead. But Melissa convinced me to hang in there and give it one more try next weekend. I then remembered that I had hardly eaten anything the day before my run and my body's energy reserves were probably very low. Maybe I actually did quite well considering that fact alone. Also, so what if I enter the Ocala Marathon and can't finish it, or maybe have to walk the last few miles back at the end? I'm still gaining the valuable experience of participating in such an event, and the Gainesville Five Points Marathon is still out there to run in on February 20 if I want.

So after giving it some more thought (and realizing that my recovery from Sunday's run was much better than the one I did on Christmas day), I'm sticking with the intention of entering the Ocala Marathon. Even though there's no guarantee that I'll be able to finish it.