That slogan, on a t-shirt worn by a ten year-old kid I saw when I was running today, kept me laughing for a few hundred feet of the 16 miles I ran today. This was the second-longest run of my marathon regimen, and was the longest distance I’ve run, period. The day was perfect, and the run felt great.
After seeing George off to Dave’s wedding and George’s subsequent trip to Montana this coming week, Aimee and I headed to the Longfellow Bridge, where I started running, over the river to Cambridge and heading west. She met me three times along the course for water breaks, and gave me three opportunities to try the various carb gels I picked up at Marathon Sports last week. Today’s run would also be a taste test among PowerBar’s PowerGel, GU Energy Gel, and Clif Bar’s Clif Shot. I was hoping for something less medicinal than the last flavor I tried, and stuck strictly to fruit-related flavors, going against Aimee’s chocolate-based suggestions. Like I said, there’s no “Wild Fudge” Gatorade for a reason.
Before I ran, I popped a Clif Raspberry, which actually tasted pretty good. At my first stop, I tried the Clif Strawberry, also decent. The Gu Orange tasted like something at Dr. Sedwick’s office, so I think I won’t be a repeat customer. The final flavor, the PowerGel “Raspberry Cream,” got my vote for most disgusting-sounding but definitely best-tasting gel of the day. It’s funny to be ingesting packets of pretty much straight carbohydrates, while running by billboards announcing the latest “low-carb wine” or other ridiculous new product of the moment.
I ran from the Longfellow Bridge on the Boston side to Watertown Square and back again, just over 16 miles, and managed a respectable 1:08 out and 1:13 on the return, for a total of 2:21, or about an 8:50 mile pace. I do a lot of math while I’m running, forever calculating what it would take to run a four-hour marathon, how many minutes a mile I can lose if I’m running a certain pace for a certain number of miles, and so on. I feel good, better than ever, actually, and more confident that I’ll be able to do it when the time comes, five weeks from today. Today’s run was a night and day contrast with last weekend’s hellish 10 miles in the baking heat. The weather was perfect, with the first real cool breeze of the season, a hint that fall might actually be on its way at some point. Let’s hope Chicago in October is just as nice.
