Long Training Run - Longest run ever!

This past saturday, I ran the longest distance I have ever ran in my life! We ran 14.5 miles! OUCH! On Friday night, in preparation of my furthest run ever, I made a delicious lasagne! Yep, from scratch! I ate a 6x6 square of it to try and fill myself up as much as I could since I would be up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, 5:30 am. By 9:30pm, I was past out cold.

Beep Beep Beep! the alarm goes off at 5:30 and Im so confused... I wake up stare at the clock and realize that I am waking up on a Saturday about an hour before I normally would on a work day. Blurry eyed, I stumble into the bathroom pop in my contacts, wash my face and brush my teeth... aaah! Jackie waits for me by the door because I am always holding us up. By 6:10 am we are on the platform waiting for the train, and to our surprise, the platform was not loaded with bums or the type of people that would leave me clintching my mace. Everyone was runners all headed up to the park for the 2nd NYRR Long Training Run.

CRAP! its 6:30! The TFK meeting time was 6:30 at 103rd St on the East Side of the park! At 86th St, Jackie and I run off the train and up to the street to jump into the first cab we see. "103rd and 5th please, by the entrance to the park" We run over to our meeting spot to find out that the whole team registered for the Long Training Run, and that we can still register too. We run over to the registration tent, register, grab our bibs and head to find our pace groups. I find my group and my "running buddy" Maggie and head over to the start of the 9 minute milers.


Feeling great, I thought to myself that these 11 miles will be a breeze, and Ill definitely be able to finish those last 3 on the bridle path with the team. By mile 9, I felt my knee start to ache. By mile 11 at the bridle path turnoff, I thought for sure that my legs were going to give out from under me. Onto the bridle path, I was sucking some major wind and thought for sure this dirt path was going to be the death of me! Finally, the lap around is coming to a close, I see Eric (one of our TFK coaches). Instead of saying, head back to our meeting spot, he said to go down to Engineers gate and turn around and run back to our meeting spot. Oh Eric! you have no idea - but at that moment, you were my least favorite person. The run comes to a close, and I head over to get some bananas and then to the medical tent to have my knees wrapped in ice. What an experience! I just ran 14.5 miles! never in my life did I ever think I would do that!!

So what do you do after you have ran this much??? EAT OF COURSE!! A group of us decided to hit up brunch. Off we go!... and then we look at our watches... its 10:15 - no brunch places are open until 11. What to do, what to do... DINER IT IS! Capping off this long run, we ate and shared our stories of the morning and talked about food! mmm...

Till next time....

Blondie... aka... Lee