Twenty Miles

As the Dolly Parton song goes, "Running five to nine, a great way to put in some mileage".  Early this morning, in the wee hour of a short time after 5 A.M., I set out for yet another shot at putting in a 20-mile or 32-km run before running in a marathon.  I don't follow a strict training program and usually put in 5 miles (8 km) a day then possibly 8 or 9 miles on the weekend.  If possible.  The longest distance I would run come from the half-marathons that I registered for, usually with NYRR.  I vaguely recall the training schedule for intermediate runner that I looked at calls for a 20-mile run a few weeks before the big day.  So off I ran around 5 A.M., partly along the D train's elevated tracks on New Utrecht Avenue, then eventually crossing the Manhattan Bridge to get into Manhattan, southward to the Brooklyn Bridge to get back to Brooklyn, then found my way back to Fifth Avenue and traced my way back to starting point.  It was indeed a little after 9 A.M. that I got home.

The last time I tried to run 20 miles, I was so tired at some point after 10 miles and ended up walking a lot.  Today I knew better about during-run nutrition and wolfed down 6 gu's and two bottles of Gatorade.  The feet still felt the effect of the long run but the rest of the body was able to push along fine.  I only walked briefly when eating the gu's or waiting for Walk signal.

In case you are thinking about tsk-tsking me, or wagging your index finger while lecturing me on tapering before the marathon, recall that I won't be running the New York City Marathon, which was about 24 hours after i set out for my 20-mile run today.  The marathon that I will be in is the Brooklyn Marathon, or the Inaugural Brooklyn Marathon to be exact, about two weeks away on November 20.