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| Meet Maxwell and Sadie. They are exhausted from all the commotion in their usually quiet house. |
Nonetheless, I have a lot to write about, and if I don't get started now, I just may not be able to inform you of all the wonderful things that have happened in the past few days. And then the world would simply end.
For today, we're going to talk about what happened on Saturday, and two separate, very different 3 hour chunks of time. First though, some background info:
For the past 4 winter breaks as I head back to the East Coast, I usually pass Lucy off to Aunt Sierra (and Uncle Travis) who in turn take her down to Portland where Sierra's family is for the holidays. Lucy then spends her holidays in Portland with them and then is back up here in Seattle by the time I get back into town. This year, however, Aunt Sierra and Uncle Travis were heading down to Portland a few days earlier than my flight to New York, which in turn meant that I had to give Lucy up to them a whole 3 days earlier than expected.
This was unthinkable. Three days in Seattle without my little girl?? I don't think so. So the only other option was that I drive the 3 hours down to Portland on Saturday, dropping Lucy off and spending a nice evening with Sierra and my West Coast family, then driving back up to Seattle on Sunday to pack up real quick and take a red-eye flight out on Sunday night. This was obviously the better option.
Now, before driving down to Portland on Saturday I of course had my longest long run in preparation for Goofy training. My 3 hour long run.
So here's what Saturday's schedule looked like:
1) Run 3 hours
2) Ice bath and eat
3) Drive to Portland
4) Eat, sleep, and enjoy an evening in Portland
Not a long to-do list, but a burdensome one. But, just for comparison's sake, I want to talk about my Saturday in terms of of 2 chunks of 3 hours...and how one of those 3 hour chunks was about a thousand times more enjoyable than the other. Take a prediction and guess which I enjoyed more.
The first half hour running. We had a small showing for our TNT team Saturday morning, as most of our teammates were already off to far away places to celebrate their holidays. However, the few of us that were there were strong and ready to go.
Erica, Annemarie, and I started off together, and pretty soon into the run Annemarie was already talking to Erica and I about how much more we were capable of as runners compared to what we usually do. She's convinced that we could be 8 minute average runners if we just pushed ourselves a little harder. While I would like to get there eventually, and do believe I can, starting during the longest run for Goofy was not the place to do it. Annemarie even agreed with that. However, I think we still probably were running much faster than we would have had it been just me and Erica.
The first half hour driving. Lucy and I stopped at Starbucks to grab some caffeine before heading out on the road. I was excited to be in a warm car with warm coffee, because I still hadn't completely warmed up from the run and ice bath. After getting back into the car where Lucy anxiously waited, I rolled up the window and promptly shut her tail in it. After some crying and panic, I convinced myself I had broken her tail and almost went to the vet. Then we both calmed down, realized she was fine, and kept driving.
30-60 minutes running. Almost 4 miles into our bowtie route run, Erica, Annemarie, and I decided to go a little further than we were supposed to on our first half of the bowtie to extend the time on that end. On the return, we were somewhat jokingly criticized by teammates for altering our route and "getting lost" on the Burke Gilman trail (this is funny because it's impossible). We laughed and kept running.
30-60 minutes driving. I settled in to listening to my audio book that I had started the day before. It's a good one, so I was excited to have a big chunk of time to listen to it. Lucy curled up in her bed in the back and passed out, having forgotten about her obviously-not-broken tail.
60-90 minutes running. In this chunk of time, we made it back to the water stop where we started, said hi to our volunteer for the day (a former teammate that it was great to see!) and then set off on the second half of our bowtie, saying "See you in an hour and 40 minutes!" My legs and my body were feeling great. I was comfortable at the pace we were running and happy to have good company on the run.
60-90 minutes driving. Having finally passed my exit for work, I got to see some different scenery to keep my brain more occupied. The audio book was interesting. Lucy continued sleeping.
90-120 minutes running. We were running north, knowing that we had 53 minutes out from the home base water stop before we turned around. As we kept running, I was thinking that I'd never run this far north on the Burke. I'd definitely done some bike rides that far north, but running from the U-district (our southernmost turn around point) to Bothell and back again was something I never imagined I'd do.
90-120 minutes driving. I found myself looking at the clock a little more often. How far away could Portland really be? It was dark and rainy, but I tried to stay focused on the audio book. Lucy slept.
120-150 minutes running. As we turned around and started in on the last 5 miles running, my IT bands started tightening up a bit and my very uncomfortable sports bra that I will never wear on a long run again started bothering me. Other than that, I felt great. Erica, Annemarie, and I talked about everything from running faster to our holiday plans to reality TV.
120-150 minutes driving. More audio book. More rain. More Lucy sleeping. My legs started hurting from being in the same position for so long, tightening up as the muscles tried to recover from the run.
150-180 minutes running. As we hit the last water stop and starting getting closer to the end, I looked at my watch and realized that we just might make it 20 miles on this run. On my 3 hour runs in the past (one for each marathon I've run) I'd run, respectively, about 17 miles, then 18 miles, then a little over 19 miles. Another little piece of evidence showing how I've gotten faster over the years. I'd never run a 20 mile training run before. Suddenly, it became the goal. As we hit the last couple miles, I switched my watch from displaying my pace to my mileage. I watched the mileage tick away slowly. At the end of the 3 hours, when we made it back to our home base water stop, I was a tenth of a mile away from 20 miles. I had told myself that if that happened, I'd run just a little further until my watch turned past that 20 mile mark. So, Erica, Annemarie, and I, after already having run for 3 hours, pushed it just a little past where we needed to go so that we could round out our even number.
When we finished, my legs we stiff, my IT bands were tight, but I felt wonderful. I had made it 20 miles in 3 hours! Annemarie later told me that our average moving pace (not includeing water stops) was 8:45. I couldn't be happier with how the run went.
150-180 minutes driving. My brain stopped focusing on the audio book. After going backwards and playing it back a couple times, dangerously having to take my eyes off the rainy road to change it, and then still not focusing on what was happening, I switched the audio book to some music and started singing as loud as I could to keep myself alert and awake. Lucy went on sleeping. We were almost made it all the way in those 3 hours. Not quite.
So...3 hours. Three hours of running, feeling alive, moving my legs, talking with friends, ticking away the miles. Three hours of driving, listening to a book, Lucy sleeping in the back, trying to keep mentally awake enough to be safe on the road.
Two chunks of 3 hours spent in completely opposite ways. Active vs. sedentary. Outside vs. stuck in a car. Mentally alive vs. struggling to keep focused on anything.
You tell me, how would you rather spend 3 hours?
I think my answer is clear.
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