Notes
Okay, so I stopped a bit short of 21 miles. But man was that pretty cool. So my thoughts, mile by mile, (or thereabouts).
Mile 1: It's a nice morning. Overcast, maybe a bit humid. Kinda sad that the person I was going to run with for the first three miles pulled out, but oh well. Not entirely surprised.
Mile 2: Clarkson really isn't that much of a hill, despite my memories of freshman year.
Mile 3: The other side of Clarkson, on the other hand, has some nice hills.
Mile 4: Oof, welcome to farm country.
Mile 5: Ooh, giant power lines... I'll only see those three more times...
Mile 6: Turning, turning, I'm TURNING! YAY. Done with Clarkson for today.
Mile 7: Mmm, chocolate Clif Bar.
Mile 8: Marshall, the next town over. Nothing really exciting… wait, I think I know that guy!
Mile 9: Box Elder Road. Hi sheep!
Mile 10: Bon Jovi gets stuck in my head. “We’re halfway there, WHO-OH, WE”rE LIVING ON a Prayer”.
Mile 11: Ack, ergh, bleh. The orange accelerade Gu is bad. The problem isn’t the flavor so much (I actually enjoyed it), but texture is too liquid-y. It’s almost yogurt-tasting.
Mile 12: Wait, why would you have a McDonald’s flag? Also, those little kid’s motorized cars are kind of neat.
Mile 13: Half-marathon. And now I’m on O.
Mile 14: Hi Katja’s classmates!
Mile 15: Turn back out toward Marshall. I’m not going all the way there, but this is probably the hardest part of the run.
Mile 16: Man, that Vanilla Gu was delicious. I literally was running down the road in awe. It was like frosting out of a toothpaste tube. So delicious. (This is really the point where I started feeling a bit loopy). And the highest point has been hit!
Mile 17: Down 19, which was not too bad, but busy. Still plodding along.
Mile 18: Had a nice conversation with three other runner. All college age, but I think I know one of them vaguely. Vaguely, as in we went to kindergarten together and we had a conversation at a track meet at some point. Also, I’m pretty sure I sped up here.
Mile 19: CANAL RD!!! I hate this road. Stupid hills. This basically torpedoed the rest of my energy (I had some jellybeans, but I had finished off my water at this point.)
Mile 20: Back in town and I was counting off tenths of a mile. I was pretty beat by this point. I should have had something more at some point, but I really thought that the orange gu would have been edible.
Mile 20.3: Called it. Right at the Perry Loop corner. Had a short conversation with some people. Walked the rest of the way home and momentarily zoned out standing at the sink.
Postrun: Ate. Wrote this. Felt a touch loopy.
That was hard, but at the same time really nice. It was fairly close to my very slow goal marathon pace, so that was a bonus (I’m aiming for about 3:15 for a good day, 3:10 for an excellent day, 3:19 to beat my dad on a not good day.)