Posts Tagged ‘stitch’

Home Run

Well, my blogging plans didn’t work out so well, but we had a wonderful time in the Caribbean and at Walt Disney World. Despite all the activity, I managed to get in 20 miles of treadmill running last week, but only one 5k run around the hotel perimeter so far this week. It’s good to be back home, where I plan to spend the next few weeks doing laundry.

Here’s a photo I cribbed from the Disney photo album site of me and the Lovely Mrs. A. pretending to be surprised by a Photoshopped alien in front of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. If you look elsewhere in the photo, you’ll see something even scarier – more evidence that America needs to do more running.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Running is funny. What is the one bit of advice I hear over and over again about long runs?

Don’t go out too fast.

What is the one thing I tell myself over and over again after I’ve made that mistake?

Don’t go out too fast.

What did I tell myself right before I started my 12-mile group long run this morning?

Don’t go out too fast.

So what did I do?

I WENT OUT TOO %&#$@* FAST!

I was fat, dumb and happy approaching the first mile marker. You would think the fact that I was way ahead of the pack would have clued me in. Duh. Checked my watch – 8:09.

EIGHT-OH-NINE! Jeez, only about 45 seconds faster than I should have run it.

Well, you know the rest. My splits increased at roughly the same rate as the national debt. I negotiated the nasty hills well enough, and I still had a respectable 50:20 at mile 6, when I picked up a side stitch. Then the walls came tumbling down. I finished with average splits of 8:50, which don’t really indicate how awful I felt.

I’ve even got extra evidence that I shouldn’t go out too fast. My half-marathon PR came in a race where my first mile was 8:46 and my last mile was 7:18.

Well, the great thing about running is there’s always tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ve got an 8-miler to do and only one thing to remember.

Don’t go out too fast.