July 24th: Journey to the Ocean
I knew Saturday’s GTS was going to be a hard one, we were scheduled to run 8 miles from Prospect Park to Coney Island…I know, who does that!?! People who are training for marathons and I am now one of those people. Unlike my ill-fated 6 mile attempt two weeks ago I was prepared this time. I work up early and had a bagel and a big glass of water. Also because I had such a horrible reaction to the gel packs last time, I packed graham crackers to refuel this time around. I filled my water bottle and I was out the door!
Naturally it was hot as all hell outside. I have to tell you, training during the summer is rough and it doesn’t help that we have a heat wave every other week. It was one of those 97+ days but I refused to sit this run out because of the heat I was so determined to complete this. You’re already hip to my run / walk strategy, and that’s how I planned to do it 5 and 1. We did ¾ the outer loop (3.3 miles) of Prospect Park and then exited the park for Ocean Parkway. We ran Ocean Parkway straight out to Coney Island.
First of all, I am so amazed by how far I’ve come in my endurance. On one of my earlier post when I talked about doing the 3.3 loop at Prospect Park and that it felt like death. Well there's something to be said about knowing you have a long road ahead of you. I whipped (and whipped is a relative term) right around that loop and out of the park with plenty of energy to spare. When you're training you really don't feel like you're making progress because it's so hard and you keep increasing your mileage which is challenging. But when you go back and breeze through distances that seemed impossible in the beginning you realize that your growing as a runner. When I was done with the loop and left the park I thought to myself I might actually be able to pull this marathon off!
Well that all changed when we got on Ocean Parkway, the path down Ocean Parkway is shaded by trees so that was a relief but it was a straight 5 mile run out to the beach. The avenues that across Ocean Parkway are all letters of the alphabet (ave A, ave B, etc.). At first I didn't notice this until about Avenue K, then Avenue L. I stopped and thought wait a minute are we about to go through the whole damn alphabet!?! I immediately pulled out my phone and checked the GPS on the iMapMyRun app and sure enough we would be running all the way to Avenue Z before we hit the beach.
I was tired and feeling depleted for energy and so I started to tap into my mental strength. I just focused on getting to the beach. My running buddy Natasha was out of energy on all levels, she was cursing all the way up Ocean Parkway, it was actually pretty funny. Then I found myself coaching her on mental endurance. I told her to pretend we're running towards something we really wan
ted. Every time she said I complained I would say in a little while we'll be there and this will all be a distant memory. I basically was talking to her and keeping my mind right as well to get through the run...and it worked!Soon enough I saw the Belt Parkway in the distance, and then signs for Coney Island, and in no time we were on the boardwalk!!! 8 miles, I couldn't believe it! When we got to the beach the team all went in the water. I wasn't too sure about that, let's be real this is still Brooklyn, who knows what's in that water. But I was so hot I threw caution to the wind and slowly made my way into the water. On my way in I thought man I hope there's no needles in here, then threw up a prayer and dunked my head. The water was as refreshing as NYC beach water can be.
What Did I Learn About Running That Day?
1) Sometimes retracing your training steps can revel your progress
2) Mental strength is everything
3) I'm kinda over running in 95+ weather. This will probably the first and last marathon I train for during the summer
OMG I cannot believe you ran on the 24th! That was my birthday and I wanted to kill myself just walking to the subway. I'm impressed...and know I couldn't do it because I can't stand that kind of heat :-/
ReplyDelete