In awe

day271 long run

#GVRAT run 2. today total 42. Overall total 48.

I am a bit tired so might not be thinking straight but there are 100 ish more entries so if I don’t put it up, it will passed by and be forgotten.

The longest I ever ran was back in November for the JFK 50 miler. Today was close. I wish I got out couple hours earlier and I would have done a 50 miler. I was just 8 miles shy. Any way, it would have been too much pressure to run a certain number of miles. I prefer free lance see as we go. If it is too hard cut back, if it is too easy, extend a bit.

I did not started out wanting to run 42 miles. I didn’t know how many miles I would be running, in my mind, I was hoping to do at least 26 miles and maybe at most would be up to 30 miles.

I did have in mind to revisit Reston, where I was almost there the last time but was just a few miles short. So today I wanted to get there. I also noted that the Fairfax County Parkway Trail connects to another famous trail, W&OD at Reston. I wanted to explore it a bit.

So that what I did and it ended up being 42 miles. I came prepare this time with a flash light, so I could find the path after sunset.

I got to Reston Town Center

A closer view of the fountain. Reston is the running mecca of Northern Virginia. Many of my races are held here.

W&OD is a rail to trail. Vienna was one of the train stops. Mural. See viva Vienna. I got to Vienna around 6 pm.
8 pm now. Trying to get home as quickly as possible. I already put in 30 miles by now. Here is the apt I grew up in (and recently had a dream about it). The neighborhood has developed all around.
Just a shopping center, but it meant a lot to me. I am now halfway of the final 12 miles, about 6 more miles to go. I have a habit of counting down when I am exhausted. Say if there are only 6 miles left, I will want to cut it down by half, so I would aim for running 3 miles. The time was I think after 9:30. Also this place is near my mom’s house, she said she would be waiting for me. And I was looking forward to it. The shopping center was a milestone.

My strength didn’t falter much. I ate earlier around 6:30 pm at a Thai place called Tom Yum Thai in Vienna. It was carry out only. I couldn’t really eat my granola any more. I ordered a Tom Yum soup. I was dyhadrated, and did not pee for an entire day! I couldn’t take dry food by then. Soup was really good. I ordered a house salad. It was a good choice even though it didn’t have much calories. The lettuce was what my body need (water/liquid). I sat on the side of the road and ate. It took a while for my body to adjust (cool down) because initially, I had no appetite. I told myself, take as much time I need. I know food is important, so I needed to rest and let my body do its work.

The reason for this is our digestive system shut down during a long run or intensive excercise, to divert the blood to power the leg muscle, heart and lung. So most people couldn’t eat and even if they did, it would come back out. It is a skill to get the body to do what is not natural. Mostly happen to those who run say 100 miles, but I started to feel it around 26 miles.

So by 9 pm the food finally settled and I could feel the energy flowing in. It sustained me to the very end.

By 11 pm I finished the final six miles. It was easy to run in the neighborhood where I am familiar with. I saw many things I want to comment on, like I came across several groups gathering of 6-7 or more people outside, having a good time. The weather was nice, but social gathering such as these are discouraged to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. I have so much to say about this of people not abiding social distancing. It will go in another post.

I don’t have time to really present how my run would have looked according to the route in Tennessee. I did a partial drive by using the Google Streetview in the morning before the run, and was going to use for this write up. I know I am still somewhere in Memphis.

My watch data. Recorded 43.8 miles and almost 11 hours. I only counted 42 miles toward the GVRAT instead of 43 miles because I have used about a mile going off the course for say buying food or shopping or sightseeing.

I ran out of time here and didn’t write about my nutrition plan. I mostly drank sodas, sport drinks, and water. Apparently I didn’t drink enough. I didn’t eat enough either.

Also I learned an important about outfits . My shorts were giving me rub burn. Don’t wear swim trunk on a long run. Also some of my groin area got bad rub burn. I didn’t apply oil or lube up before the run. A lesson I should learn if I am considering doing even a longer run.

I am outside of the city of Memphis, but still in its suburb, I think

https://awesome-table.com/-M6DxXSXO3PkCioEJGRm/view

meta: various edits. added a link to my progress page.

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