Runner’s Rhythm

I’m almost done with my harsher training right now. I’ve finally made it back up to dual-12s. I run 12 miles on Saturday and Sunday. Since I’m a slow runner for my build and size, each run takes me about 2 hours.

My normal procedure is to have a single bottle of water and a single refueling item with me. This weekend I unwisely left without a backup refuel with me. So, what happened? I ran into The Wall.

The Wall, as it’s called, is when your brain runs out of glucose, or so I am lead to believe. As a runner, you can feel it, and this time I knew exactly what was happening, but I was helpless to do anything about it (or was I?). I didn’t have an extra refuel with me and I didn’t have my cellphone to call Erica to ask her to bring me something.

Unfortunately, the only recourse for me was to keep heading home. The last two miles of my run felt like they took hours. My brain was having a hard time focusing or thinking about anything. I was even finding it hard to focus on my listening material (The Mongoliad Book One).

All I could think of to do was put one foot in front of the other, it was all my addled brain could conjure up. This is where the tricky bit comes in. I could have done something about my situation. Very easily. All I had to do was stop at any nearby convenience store, pull out the extra small bit of cash I have with me and purchase something quick to eat or drink. A bottle of Gatorade or a small candy bar would have been enough to get me home easily.

That’s the funny thing about hitting the Wall though. Your brain is having a hard time coping and your reasoning and mental functions aren’t quite up to spec. In retrospect, the answer was easy, but I didn’t realize it until many hours later. And in fact, I had a hard time focusing for much of the rest of the day. I’m sure there is a lesson to be learned in there, and it probably involves not taking wooden nickels from goats who live under umbrellas.

With all this running, I was in need of a vital commodity, shoes. I was very disappointed to find that no store in Fargo had my running shoes in stock. It’s not because I wear some fancy Italian made, bronzed, super runner shoe that’s only available once every three years. No, I wear size 11 Gel Nimbus WIDE. That’s right, the only reason I couldn’t get shoes was because I wear a wide size. Four of the five stores I went into immediately replied no after I said “wide”. I realize that may not be an incredibly popular measurement, but it seems like having a couple on hand would have garnered one of these stores a $100-$200 sale.

As it was, I ended up going to Zappos online store and picked up two more pair of the exact same shoe I’m wearing now. The new models are out, but I got the previous model (the Gel Nimbus 14s) for $40 cheaper. Normally I’d like to shop locally, but in this case, I had no choice.

Relating back to an earlier note, I’ve been listening to a lot of audio books lately. Since my brother works near the local Love’s truck stop, I have the opportunity to drop by and scour their selection of books on CD. They usually have a small selection of Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy style material and for only $14.99 per box set. That’s ideal for me. They provide me several hours of running companionship and then I loan them to friends who get even more use out of them. The link above leads to Brilliance Audio where all of these audio books come from. Not all of the stories and/or readers have been ideal, but more often than not, they are worth the expenditure. One of the best was The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch. A wonderful medieval murder mystery in the vein of Cadfael. I plan on picking up the other books in the series at my first opportunity.

For now, I leave you with this, my music of choice for my Sunday run: