10/15/2005

Workout: medium-long run 16mi.

A lot of things going on for this run today. It was my last "big" run before the marathon, with only a 12-miler next weekend. I reviewed the race course and wanted to simulate the start of the MCM with the big hill through Rosslyn to Clarendon.

Doing some mapwork earlier in the week, I drove to the Pentagon South Parking lot around 6:15am and left from there. After climbing the hill, I turned at Spout Run and returned the same way, then took the trail to mile 11 in Old Town, and turned back again.

Other MCM reconnaissance work that week revealed that the race would be featuring Powerade lemon-lime, while throughout my training I'd been gulping Gatorade (orange and lemon-lime) while running and during the off-hours. So I picked up a few bottles of Powerade lemon-lime for use with my last 2+ weeks of training. I can't say the taste is any better, but not much worse either.

After heading back downhill through Rosslyn and crossing under the Memorial Bridge, I thought to myself that it was a pleasant surprise to have not seen the usual teeming hordes of marathon training groups on the MVT North. Obviously, I was wrong. Not two minutes later, The Horrible Horde descended upon me.

Just before mile marker 16, there they were: 200 or so Team in Training members walking on the trail, no doubt a precursor to their upcoming run. For my first pass, they were fairly innocous though, at times they lingered on the right (as in "wrong") side of the trail. No harm, no foul.

Near mile 7 1/2, I had my gel of choice, a GU banana. For some portions thereafter I felt sluggish but for the most part thought I was moving too fast for a training run, and tried to slow the pace at times. After mile 12, it was slowed for me, as I got a cramp/stitch on my right side below the ribcage. I walked momentarily, then tried to regain the pace again and tough it out, but the pain ensued. Interestingly enough, when I applied pressure to my side with my hand, the pain subsided. After a second short walking session, the pain did dissipate.

After crossing the bridge at the I-395/GW Parkway onramp, I re-encountered the Knuckleheads in Training. One guy at the front of The Horde crossed the center line, clipping my left elbow; when I turned to look at him, he gave me the ol' "Whatta you lookin' at? F*ck off!" Soon thereafter, the throngs came at me from all over the trail. One hefty female was so engrossed in conversing with the two other women to her right, that she forced me to swerve to the grass on the right of the trail, at which one of her trailing colleagues called out lamely "Sorry, man." But the most classic incident was near the end of the pack, where a group of four women lined up completely across the trail were coming at me head on. The two on the right side were actually tethered together with a fluorescent green bandana, and when they approached I had no choice but to simply stop in my tracks. They slowed and passed me on my right.

Unbelievable. The workout, in general, was a good way to ease into the longer mileage one coming up in two weeks.