First 18-miler

RUN: 18.2 miles, 3 hrs and 4 minutes. Calculated as just over 10 min/mile pace, but it includes traffic stops. Weather at start was ~1/2" snow and 22F, at the end it was wet slush and 33F.

As always, I was overdressed. And oddly, I was warm at the start but not at the end. Funny how that works.

I'd mapped out a simple route: home to Big River (~5.5), Monday group route (7), then home again (~5.5), with some little circles and loops in between to vary it up. By breaking 18 into small segments, it's easier to process and it gave me planned breaks for water and pit stops. A lot of thinking goes into planning these routes, to include some parks, bathrooms, water fountains, etc. I've already mapped out a potential 20-miler for a few weeks from now. And even with all the planning, I still feel like a pack mule heading out the door. Here's what I carried with me yesterday: FuelBelt with 4 bottles, 5 gels, credit card and a few $1, phone, house keys, YMCA card, 2 plastic baggies, page of maps just in case, kleenex, I think that's it. Most of it ended up in the lower pockets of the jacket right next to the FuelBelt, added a few pounds to the belly.


I was warm within the first mile. I debated turning around, but I knew that once I got away from the houses and into the wind I'd get cold. (wind exposure was also part of route planning, I'd planned a run in an exposed park with the wind at my back.) I struggled the first 2 miles to get used to the snow, I was sliding and losing traction. My pace was only 10 m/m, I was hoping for 9.5 m/m. I'd speed up on clear pavement but lose it again on snow. By 3 miles I'd accepted this and slowed down. Running on snow is tiring, and I expected to have some sore hip muscles tomorow.


Somewhere around 3.5 miles I realized I should have weighed myself, to monitor water loss during the run. I debated turning around and mentally calculated that I could repeat the 3.5-odd miles about 6 times to get 18. Why my mind does this, I don't know. But I break it up in my head and for some reason running the same 6 miles 3x sounds shorter than doing 18 once. Wasn't I just complaining about doing laps in a pool?


I stopped at the YMCA at 4.5 miles for bio-break and a gel. Stopped again at 5.5 at BRR to check on something from the FBR. All these break were refreshing and let my legs clear up. I decided then to run the rest of the route by enjoying traffic stops and walking when I wanted to, as opposed to pushing it for a steady pace. I might be the last person on the running planet to learn that long runs are training to keep you on your feet for a long time, not for a long distance. With that in mind, I altered the game plan.


I set off on the Monday night route, the first time I'd run it in broad daylight, instead of evening or darkness. The day was warming up and I'd taken my orange Oglesby Turkey Trot hat off. Unable to find a place to store it I held it in a gloved hand. Surprisingly, I thought I was lost a few times early in the run, I didn't recognize the streets in daylight. At 7.65 I was along the Des Peres, moving along smoothly, when my mind had the thought of "I can turn around at 9, go back the way I came". Why do I think that turning around and re-running the route will be easier or shorter than continuing on?


Needless to say, I continued on. I was the only runner at the time, but there were many footprints in the snow. Often, I would forget I was running. I've been asked what I think about on long runs since I don't listen to music. My mind wanders from topic to topic and pieces of songs play in my head. Today's song was MacNamara's Band by Bing Crosby, actually it was just one line of the song, a snippet played over and over in the back of my mind. I don't really "think", it's more like a dream state with random and seemingly unconnected thoughts quickly fluttering by. But yet, there must be something to this type of thinking, as I have some of my greatest ideas in long workouts. Well I think they're great anyway.


Running in the daytime revealed pieces of this course I'd never realized. There are beautiful tiles marking the park path embedded in the sidewalks that I occasionally saw through the snow. There are two cemetaries on the route. There are signs to Leisure and Marcus Parks, parks that I was previously unaware of. More importantly, I realized why I sometimes struggle on this run on Monday nights-- there are slight hills that I didn't know about!

At 10.7 miles, I decided to take in another gel so I stopped at an intersection with a waist-high wall. My hands tend to lock up in the cold because they are balled up in my gloves, so the wall helped me sort my belongings without having to throw them on the ground. While packing up and readying to go, I realized I couldn't find my orange hat. At this point a runner came from behind and passed me. No hat on the wall, the ground, or on the path behind me. Not in my coat, pockets, or on my head (checked there repeatedly). Oh No!!! What to do?!?! Should I go back for a schwag hat? From a race back home that I placed in my AG? Duh, Of Course I go back!! So I doubled back, my pace a bit faster, and my mind rapidly doing the math--where do I last remember carrying it? --I should have asked that runner if he saw it? --Did I drop it at an intersection? --Did another person already find it?

It wasn't at the first intersection, nor the second. Now I was getting worried. Was there going to be some random St Louisan wearing MY Turkey Trot hat? Someone who had no Idea Where Oglesby Is? Heck no!! I picked up the pace even more. Stupid orange hat! Where was it?!?! Just when I was thinking I was wasting my time, I could see it just past a pedestrian bridge. There is was! Untouched. Unstolen. Mine. I promptly put it on, and left it there for the remainder of the run. The Garmin said 11.7 miles. I'd added 2 miles to my route over a hat, such a silly thing, I should be hiding my face under that hat! Now I had some recalculating to do.

Originally, I was going to run back to BRR before going home. That got scratched. Now I just had to head towards home. Earlier, I'd debated stopping at the Schnucks south of home to get some post-run food and ice. I'd have to walk home, but it was only a mile. Scratch that too. Besides, who needs to buy ice when you can just stand outside for 12 minutes?! Onward towards home!

The remaining miles got harder. There are some good hills in the Kingshwy & Chippewa area. But these are main roads with turning traffic, pedestrians, and pollution. Soon enough I came back to TG Park. At this point, 17.1 miles in, I was eager to finish and checking the distance every tenth or so. Thoughts are all the more disjointed at this point. At 17.3, the charged-this-morning Garmin sounded the Low Battery alarm. At 17.7 I turned back onto my street. At 18.2 and a block from home, I called it Done

I recovered surprisingly well from this run (I did it yesterday). I didn't do the ice bath, just some NSAIDs. I didn't nap and just went to bed early. But I've been ravenously hungry since, and unable to satisfy that hunger. I might be dehydrated too, and mis-reading it as hunger. I certainly did not drink enough on this run, and that needs to remedied! No sore hips, no blisters, no tendons that ache. Just lots of fatigue from a body yearning to recover, and to my surprise, ready for more.

Next up: the season's first 20-miler!