Saturday the labor was one of pain and agony. For Danny, because he was fighting a migraine. For Jack, because he's teething and it appears to hurt a lot worse this time than when he got his two on the bottom. For me, because my two favorite boys in the world were hurting. And also because I had stayed up all night with Jack the night before because Danny's migraine had already started and I was exhausted and having an unhappy baby when you're already exhausted is a pretty rough deal. Also, I made no fewer than three trips to two different pharmacies because they did not have what I needed or I bought the wrong thing. Teething is complicated.
Sunday the labor was over a hot stove in an increasingly hot kitchen, canning. The books you read about canning always romanticize it and make it sounds so fun and when you get right down to it, it's work. You can say you're having a "canning party", but that doesn't change the fact that it's sloppy and hot and sticky and heavy and puts a crick in your neck or between your shoulder blades. But we decided it was worth it. You can read about that on the pitiful food blog, which I still have not entirely given up on.
Today the labor was of a physical variety, our longest run to date (Danny's longest run of his life, my longest run in about 11 years, yikes am I that old already?). Several people asked if a marathon was in the works after the Oregon post, and I did actually mention this in a previous post (whirlwind!) but I was trying to be kind of low key about it and I guess I did too good a job downplaying it because it appears to have been missed altogether. But I didn't know if it was actually going to happen and didn't want people to be super disappointed for me if it didn't, because I wasn't going to be super disappointed. We still weren't really sure until last night, which was the deadline for registering before the price went up and if I am nothing else I am a cheapskate, so I decided the decision could be put off no longer, so we're doing it. We are running the Golden Hills Marathon on October 10, and by around 10:30 this morning I was really starting to regret that decision. We went to Briones Regional Park, where we were going to run a 14 mile loop around the reservoir followed by a 4 mile loop in the park itself. We got to the reservoir and discovered that you needed a special permit to go in, which of course would be too easy to sell at the reservoir itself, they have to sell it someplace far away that we didn't have time to go to. So we regrouped and figured out a way to do two 7 mile loops in the park itself, along with a 5 mile spur to get our mileage. Less than halfway into the first loop, on our 100th or so Far Too Big hill, the sun already feeling unacceptably hot and not a scrap of shade in sight, I was really starting to doubt our ability to pull this off. Before today we'd the longest we'd gone was 15, which is just barely over halfway to where we needed to be in just a month. And suddenly even the 7 mile loop was seeming impossible. I couldn't imagine doing it twice. But we eventually got up on a ridgeline and the hills mellowed out a bit and there were even some trees for shade here and there, and we were coming up on the little out-and-back spur we had decided to do after the first loop so we couldn't wimp out. And this is what we saw:
I don't know if you can even tell how ridiculous that trail looks, since I took the photo on my phone and it's not the best resolution. We stopped dead in our tracks, looked at each other, and said simultaneously, "Screw this!" We decided to leave that godforsaken place after the first loop and go to Tilden, our favorite place to run, why do we ever go anywhere else? We did find a few other bits to add on to make it a nice round 9 miles, so we could say we were halfway done. And then, 20 minutes in the car and a couple cliff bars later, we were at Inspiration Point. And then, another 9 miles later, we were done! And this is how we felt about that:
I think it's hilarious we were making the same face. We didn't even plan that. Seriously, though, we felt SO much better on that second half. I'm sure the lack of preposterous hills had something to do with it, and maybe the water and cliff bars, and maybe there is something to taking breaks on long runs after all, maybe we'll have to try to duplicate that in the future. But our split for the first 9 miles was 1:40 and for the second 9 was 1:17, so we must've been doing something right. I was feeling a whole lot better about our prospects on October 10 after that. It's still possible it will be an ill-fated experiment on whether it's possible to train for a marathon while running basically only on the weekends, but I'm feeling much more optimistic after today.
Also, I learned a few things on this run:
- I used to wonder why when you sweat your body doesn't get covered in salt crystals once the water evaporates off you. It turns out, when you sweat enough, it does!
- My armpits must be fatter than they were when I was 17, the last time I ran these long distances, because after about 12 miles they start rubbing against themselves and I get armpit burn and have to hold my elbows out from my sides like a speed skater. That didn't used to happen. When did I get fat armpits?
- This is Danny's contribution: Danny is like a V-8 and I am like a little 4-banger. He is quicker to start and much more powerful up hills, but also requires a lot more fuel to get where he's going.
- It's all well and good to get a babysitter to stay with your baby while on a long run, but you should go ahead and pay for some recovery time, too, in order to avoid crumbling under the force of an excited baby who wants to endlessly jump up and down on you when you feel like curling up into a little ball
We celebrated afterward, enjoying a little bit of leisure at the end of our labor-intensive weekend, taking Jack to the park and lounging around on the picnic blanket while he watched dogs run and frisbees get thrown and kids play on the swings.
And Jack couldn't have been happier about that little outing. It made me wish we'd spent more of the weekend doing nothing. Can we do it over? I'd like another weekend, please!
3 comments:
Good for you guys! October should be a great time of year for a marathon - is this Danny's first?
Funny about the armpit burns - I remember Chris complaining about that when he was running long distances with me too. Maybe you just have big muscles? That's a nicer way of thinking of it.
I HIGHLY recommend the GU energy gels - it has caffeine AND sugar - both highly necessary for long distance events.
Becky, that picture of you and Jack is so cute! You both have the same smile. I do have to add that you don't look that tired in the picture with him jumping up and down! Laura
I think that if you live through the training you're doing, you will fly up those hills during the race. Good golly -- don't you have enough challenges in your life yet? You guys make me feel like a wimp.
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