Day 4,305—20 miles in the Cemetery and Reflections on the Shippey IV—

 

        I went directly to the cemetery, which was about a half mile from my house. I had to cross some train tracks to get there, and I saw a train passing through. I remembered that years ago, I had covered every section in the cemetery and found 5 miles to run, but now there was a new subdivision to run. Each lap I did three in the cemetery and two in the subdivision. Around 12 miles in, I started thinking that I would eventually need to drink water, but crossing the street and dealing with all the cars on my way home made me want to stay where I was. Around 18 miles, the lack of water started to impact me more, so I stopped.

        I was averaging about 9 minutes per mile for most of the run. When I left the cemetery, there was so much traffic that I had to go through the snow piles on the side of the road. Although I didn’t complete a full marathon, it felt good to run 20 miles so easily. I plan to run at least one marathon next weekend. It is supposed to be warmer tomorrow, so maybe that will mean I can access the sidewalks soon. However, until then, I think I've found a good alternative route with a lot of hills. 

I was thinking more about the video today, and it reminded me how much I need to do consistent segments and have questions that I always answer. I liked the way the video turned out, and I like the idea of mixing footage from past races into future videos. What was tough about capturing video and pictures for this run was how long it took to get out my phone and put it away. While that was a factor before, this race, I was so overwhelmed with moving forward at a consistent pace. I could not count on making up time by running faster.

        I had a good opportunity in this video to record a short interview with guys I ran with, but it was harder practically than I thought it would be. I could plan on asking two questions: Why did you decide to do this race? And what is your most memorable race experience? My leg has still been bothering me, but as long as I am not tripping, it isn’t getting worse, which means I need to stay off trails for a while. I hope the next 100-mile run I signed up for doesn’t have a difficult trail!