Holy shit, I actually ran a 20-miler this weekend!
Saturday morning, I met Kelly and Susan at the park in Salisbury (after I found out there were two zoo entrance parking lots, and I’d picked the wrong one haha.) It was a little chilly at the start, but eventually the fog burned off and it turned into a perfect day for a long run.
We started with two loops of a roughly 3.1-mile path that goes all the way around the park. I had no idea that loop was there, or the park was that big! Before Saturday, I’d only been to the zoo and the little bit of the park near it. Anyway, the loop was a nice mix of surfaces, hardly any of which was paved.
We ran into a yellow lab named Salty (aka Sparkles) and his owner three times, and had to stop to pet Salty/Sparkles every time, of course. His owner warned us each time of a mysterious Dodge Challenger with tinted windows he thought was circling the park and following us… that neither of us ever saw. I don’t know why but old white guys seem to be the most paranoid people on the planet. (Seriously, in all my years running in public places, it’s almost always an old white guy who warns me about some danger only he is aware of.)
Anyway! Two loops and a little over six miles in, we ventured out into Salisbury. We ran to the college so we could run through the pedestrian tunnel under Route 13, then through the campus. On the other side of the campus, we tried to find our way to Riverside Drive, which, as the name suggests, runs along the Nanticoke River, and is lined with really pretty, really expensive houses. Instead, we made a wrong turn somewhere and wound up in the middle of Fruitland.
We found Route 13 and followed it north back to Salisbury, even though it didn’t have sidewalks, running in the turn lanes and on the shoulders. Once we got back to the college, we retraced our route back to the park.
With the accidental detour to Fruitland, Kelly and Susan were already at 16 miles by the time we got back to the park, two miles farther than they’d planned… and only four miles away from an impromptu 20-miler. I worked hard convincing them both what a great idea it would be to finish my 20-miler with me. Not gonna lie, I just really wanted the company for the last four miles. It worked!
By that point, I’d nearly finished a water bottle full of GU Roctane and I’d eaten a gel, but I was absolutely starving. So were they. Fortunately, they travel more prepared than I do. We all refueled with some bananas and Swedish Fish they had in their cars, and Kelly gave me a bottle of water out of the case she carries in her car at all times, so I could refill my handheld.
We set off for one last lap, and then a little more. It had warmed up into the mid 60s and the sun had broken through, the only time I’ve seen it in the past several days, now that I think about it. We were all dragging a bit, but we were still moving steadily. And then it was done!
I had rarely paused my Garmin, even during some of our longer stops, so it had recorded 20 miles in 3:16 on the dot, a 9:48/mile average. Most of the uninterrupted miles were in the 9:15 to 9:30 range, about where I’m supposed to be on long runs.
It was a really enjoyable run overall! We laughed about all kinds of dumb stuff while we were out there. They were a lot of fun to hang out with, and at the end of it, I had 20 miles under my belt.
When I got home, Clark went out for a run of his own, and then we got cleaned up, picked up my younger sister and headed to Annapolis.
First, we saw “Winchester.” Based on the couple of reviews I’d seen beforehand, I expected it to be awful. It wasn’t a great movie by any means, but it didn’t completely suck either.
I really enjoyed the sets; they were recreated on sound stages, because the rooms and hallways in the actual house are too small for the crew to work in, but there were several that looked very close to what I remember from the tour.
The basic background facts about the house and how it got built were mostly accurate, but the ghost story — which was completely made up — was kinda hokey and didn’t really make a whole lot of sense if I thought about it too hard. This is a minor spoiler alert, so fair warning, but in the end, it seemed to suggest the 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco and reached San Jose, where the house is, was caused by the wrath of a single pissed off ghost in the Winchester House. OK!
We made it to The Melting Pot a few minutes ahead of our reservation and then had a VERY good dinner. I enjoyed all the fondue courses, but dessert was my favorite. I could go for another vat of melted dark chocolate and a plate full of things to dip in it right now.
It was nearly 1 a.m. by the time we got back home. Pepper had destroyed the utility room with his butt while we were gone, as expected, but we were both too exhausted to bother with it then, so we just left the door closed and went to bed. Clark took care of it in the morning.
After he got that cleaned up Sunday morning, he had to go to his office to get caught up on some work. I stayed home with Pepper. Since we’d left him alone so long the night before, I didn’t want to go for my run until Clark got home.
By the time Clark got back, I probably could have squeezed in 10 miles just before the daylight disappeared, but I didn’t feel like it. Instead, I swapped it with the 5-miler on the schedule for today. I started out slow — the first mile was 9:12 — but continuously sped up, until the last half-mile was just under an 8:00 pace. I finished the 5.5-mile loop in 47:31, an 8:38/mile average.
The start of the Atlanta race had been rain delayed, so it was barely halfway through when I got back from my run. We watched Kevin Harvick win it, got takeout for dinner, watched the Olympics closing ceremony and then fell asleep.
Today, I will go out and do that 10-miler, and then I think I will officially be able to say I am tapering for Shamrock!
A Simple Running Log 