The good news is that I got my Garmin watch to do other stuff besides tell time. The bad news is that its battery died today at mile 15. *Heavy sigh*
Five weeks of training are left. Well, four are left if you take into account the last week of "tapering" when I will be in Cape Town, peeping at penguins, climbing Table Mountain during full moon (sounds so pagan) and washing down seafood and carbs with South African wine. I'm feeling like a real runner, particularly this weekend. You know why? I did not let any douchebaggery get in the way of my training. Yesterday, I ran 7 miles, getting some great hill repeats in. I was feeling fairly worked-up, so I blasted M.I.A. through my headphones and pretended to shoot guns in the air all over Brooklyn Heights. You should try this.
Today I ran for 3 1/2 hours. I'm not sure exactly how many miles it ended up being since the Garmin battery ran out at the 15th mile. Using the watch, I learned that my comfortable non-racing pace is 9 minute miles. I kind of figured that. I still think this is going to be too fast for me during Two Oceans. I'm going to play it safe by aiming for a steady 10:30 pace so I can finish in under 6 hours. This will also give me the opportunity to take in the gorgeous scenery and stop at the refreshment stations. Today, for fuel I took along a peanut butter cliff bar (ate it an hour in) and a cliff power shot (chocolate). I'm not paid by Cliff Bar, btw. I didn't plan on getting thirsty, which is dumb. I ended up stopping at a Dunkin' Donuts in Carrol Gardens to beg for a cup of water. I'm guessing that my sweaty disheveled appearance did not help but my spandexed booty couldn't have hurt. Especially when I went back for cup number two. The run was pretty uneventful. At one point my toe cramped up and I stopped quickly to take off my shoe and massage my foot. A woman with three little girls in pink jackets stopped to see if I was alright and I said I was and that I'd been running for a couple of hours and they all seemed excited by this. The brief massage and encouragement solved the problem and I kept going, guns in tow.
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