So for the first of these runs, I planned to tack on extra miles before a five mile race that was scheduled for today. I figured I’d be able to find some running fam willing to come along and keep me honest. I figured that, because I know quite a few folks who do this – run long on the weekend – every weekend. They don’t think much about it because they’ve been doing it for so long it just feels normal.

This idea came up as we were running extra miles, we were talking about how depending on “where you are” on your journey and who you’re talking to, you could just as easily be “that crazy person” as you could be that “reasonable person” – doing the same exact thing! It just depends on the perspective of the person you’re talking to. I happened to be talking to someone who is training for a 100 mile run. So he and is training partner were going to do 15 miles this morning and another 20 miles tonight. On a trail. In the dark.

Who’s crazy now? (See what I mean?)

The Run

First off – my original plan was to run 8.1 miles before the race, then the five mile race – but as it turned out the peeps who helped me out today planned to run a couple miles before hand – leaving a 6-ish mile run for after the race.

This is new for me. After a race I am usually – DONE. I don’t wanna cool down or do anything other than retrieve a sweaty bagel or banana (or both), catch my breath and then go have coffee with a friend. SO the idea of running those extra miles was not appealing. The upside? I get to stretch myself a little – to do something uncomfortable – but not too uncomfortable or dangerous. You can see it went fine and I made the distance (and some change – but who’s counting?)

• Miles 1-2 – “Easy warm up. Lots of running to do today.”

“Am I really running 6 more miles after this? I ran too fast…”

(The race)

• Mile 3 – Me: “Oooh – I feel pretty fresh. I should really slow down.” Also me: Does not slow down.
• Mile 4 -Me: “Seriously – you have to run 6 miles after. Slow down.” Also me: Does not slow down.
• Mile 5 -Me: “Did anyone see mile marker three? Oh crap – I’m running a 50k next weekend.” Also me: Does not slow down.
• Mile 6 -Me: “Yeaaaasssssss. Wait – slooowwwww doooowwwwwnnnnnn.” Also me: Does not slow down.
• Mile 7 – Me: “Only a mile to go! Run faster!” Also me: Runs faster.

(Post Race)

• Miles 8 – 13.1 – “Dear lord why the hell did I run the race fast?”

In summary – I survived. I had a nice brisk 5 mile tempo run in the middle of my half marathon distance run. I never would have done that if I was just running long and if I hadn’t had friends around running after.

Next week: Rosaryville 50k.