Running with Jack

This morning I slept a little later than I had planned finally getting up about 6:15. By 6:45 I was warmed up and out the door. Today’s schedule, 28K/17M, long run pace (about 6:00/K). The weather was clear, a slight wind, the temperature around 3C/37F, overall pretty mild. The first 7-8K were non-eventful, but then I noticed that I was getting blisters on the inside arches of BOTH feet. I had made a fatal mistake, pure cotton socks with my Brooks running shoes. This combination always produces blisters on long runs. For some reason socks made out synthetic materials are fine in combination with the Brooks. I knew then it was going to be a long run!

In any case I crossed the 11K point and the first turn around with an average pace of just under 6:00/K (9:39/M), or right on pace. By the 15K point my new blisters were killing me. Nothing to do but grit my teeth and keep running. It was light outside by now so I turned on my MP3 player and hoped that a little Toby Keith and Brooks & Dunn would help me forget about my blisters.

I crossed the 20K point at almost exactly 1:59:00, right on pace! Shortly before this point I had taken a right off my trail and was following a bike path that ran along a highway connecting a couple of neighboring towns. I was only about 10 minutes from home at this point and had all I could do to keep from heading home, my feet were killing me, every step was painful. But I sucked it up and kept moving, the constant flow of cars kept me moving – maybe I was afraid that I looked so bad that someone my stop and offer help ;-)

So I did almost a complete circle around my town, finally reaching the familiar running path that I normally run. From here I knew it was just 2K more, I cannot describe how good that sounded at that moment. I picked up the pace a little, I just wanted to get home and nurse my aching feet. I reached the last corner and just poured it on, sprinting to my house. I did a painful walk around the block to cool down. I ran for 2:50:24, or somewhere around 28-29K (17-18M) - all on asphalt paths or roads. Other than the blisters on my feet it was a good run, my pace was almost exactly on plan.

So the blisters, the left foot had a huge blister, the largest I’ve ever seen. The right foot also had a blister, but not quite so large. These hurt so bad that I decided to drain them, so disinfected a needle and went to it. When I hit the left foot blister with the needle it spray out like a waterfall, amazing, cool really :-) So after a warm bath and some brunch I was good to go. This was my last long run this year. I do have one medium long run (22-24K) scheduled before the new year.

So let me take the opportunity to wish everyone a most joyous holiday season. Don’t be afraid to indulge a little, you earned it! We can all get back to training AFTER the holidays! And make sure you spent lots of time with your family and friends that you have been neglecting all year due to your training ;-) God bless you everyone!