17 miles, 3:04, Sawyer Camp Trail

The beautiful Sawyer Camp Trail was calling again, this time to do 17 miles. It is a 6 mile long trail one way so one has to go out and back, and then go out and back again for 2.5 miles to finish off the 17 miles. I did it in 3:04, including about 3 minutes of a bathroom break (as if that matters). So, it was a bit slow, but I was deliberately so. After the 7.55 mile long hilly run on Thursday, a wonderful 2 hrs of tennis ball cricket in the sun during a company picnic on Friday had left me sore in the back, shoulders and glutes in the morning of the Saturday run. So, I knew it was going to be tough.... In the end, I thought I finished reasonably strong.

I have been reading Galloway's book on marathon running (the one that came in our goody bags given to us by the wonderful Asha folks) the last few days and it talked a lot about managing your diet before and during the run. Inspired, I had gone to Trader-Joes to buy some energy bars last week. I managed to roll out of bed a bit earlier than usual (5.30 am) and ate one of the bars at around 5.45am. Then I idled around for half an hour, but finally changedand left for the trail at around 6.40am.

The sight of the trail made my eyes light up. The weather was perfect, probably about 55F and a bit cloudy. After a short warm-up and stretch later, we were all ready to roll on our personal journeys through the trail. I had decided to take it easy, and joined Manish, Chakri and Chetan for the first six miles, going at about 12 minutes per mile (this is about 2 minutes/mile slower than my average of the past runs), including about 1 minute of walk for every 9 minutes of run. Sharing jokes throughout those six miles just made it so easy. Thanks guys!

After the first six miles, I wanted to go a little bit faster though I was already feeling a little bit sore. Thankfully, I had Chetan's company for the next four miles or so. We continued our 1-minute walk breaks, which, even though the minute passes too quickly, just feel like they are a good thing. Coming to the 11 mile mark, I was feeling pretty strong. It was still cool and misty, reminding me of the half SF half marathon. Or may be it was just that the starting line (at 12 miles) was in sight... Once there, I took a small break, and went out again for the 2.5 miles round-trip to complete the remaining 5 miles. However, by the time about three miles were done, I was doing the countdown after every 0.5 mile. I wonder what portion of this behavior is truly caused by the condition of the body ...

After the run, I was pretty sore, much more so than in previous long runs. I think I will blame the cricket games the previous afternoon for that. It has been a tough day since the run too, as I am barely able to walk only slowly. But it is my upper body that is sore that I can not cough or laugh too much :-)

Key learnings:

• Rest on the day before the long run
• Go to the trail early to warm-up and stretch
• Try GU next time (this time I ate pieces of an energy bar throughout the run after the first 10 miles, as advised by Galloway's book, which actually worked out well).