The Day 8 Miles became 9.5

I don't have much to say about Tuesday's run except it proved my point about how I do run faster outside, even unintentionally.

An Unexpected Long(er) Run

However, the big run of this week to discuss is my 8-mile long run turned 9.48 miles. Now, how in the world did that happen? If you've read any of my prior posts, you've probably noticed that I often discuss how some runners continue running past their "goal," and that I very rarely do so myself. Today was an exception, for many reasons.

Running with My Brother

My brother and I planned to do our long runs together this week. Coach Bennett on NRC always says to run with people and invite people to run, but it's not usually my thing. I like to run alone - I don't have to wait around for people to be ready, plan a specific route to accommodate different starting points, run different paces, or talk. However, if my brother wants to run together, I'm in.

He had a time-based run, and I had a distance run, but they seemed to align pretty well so we thought it'd work out. I started off the morning by walking in the direction of his location, and he ran toward me so when we met up, I just continued on with him. The first mile was basically us navigating our way to the West Side Highway. It was a little chaotic given the people and all the streetlights we tried to avoid stopping at. Then, we got on the path and ran straight up for about 4-5 miles.

It was such a different run for me. I had the guided training on and my music but ended up not really listening to it because my brother and I were just chatting. I've mentioned running while talking before and it doesn't usually go well for me. However, for the first 3 miles we would occasionally talk - not long conversations but just general "What'd you do last night" and "How was work this week?"

We continued up the perimeter of NY and I got to run on parts of the path that I'd never made it to before. It was pretty hot, given that we got out there around 11am, but better than it had been earlier in the week. I prepared way better for this run than I have been. I brought a water bottle with LMNT and a gel, which I had around the 5 mi mark.

Right around then, we went inward to the city to get to the bottom of Central Park. It was incredibly crowded there, which I didn't particularly enjoy. However, I had gotten a burst of energy around this point, so I was feeling pretty good. We eventually found our way to where NY shuts down the street for Summer Streets and joined all the runners, walkers, and bikers as we headed back toward Lower Manhattan.

Smiling on Summer Streets because only 1 mile left

Now, the reason for the extra ~1.5 miles is because my brother's time-based run happened to be longer than it took us to run 8 miles. I originally hadn't even considered that I would finish out his run with him, because I only expected him to have a couple minutes more than me. But obviously, I wasn't just going to stop and let him continue, especially when we realized he had 20 more minutes. One, because that seems mean. Two, we planned to have lunch after. And three, we were far from our apartments, so what would be the point?

Luckily, I felt good at this point. Earlier, around 5 miles, I was feeling a little tired and slow, but I kept checking in with myself and reminding myself that literally nothing was wrong. My body felt fine, and my breathing was good, so it was just my mind. I think that gel really helped me because, as I said, I got that boost of energy around 6 miles.

The Finish Line

When we finished, we walked right into a CVS and I inhaled a PowerAde. Nothing tastes better after a run in the heat. We then walked about a mile to give our legs some time to recover and then took the subway to a lovely lunch place and devoured some spicy tuna bowls.

Pura Vida Spicy Tuna Bowl - 10/10

It was honestly an incredible time. It was great to experience a different running area. It was fun running with my brother; the fact that we were aiming for similar paces and distances worked out perfectly. It also was great to run further than I expected.

I've mentioned this a lot in my posts, but when I run 4 miles, I rarely end it thinking, "Oh, I could run 4 more or even just 1 more." I knew going into this run that my run next week is 10 miles and a 2-mile jump seemed aggressive. Now, I get to go into that run knowing that it'll be fine. Just 0.50 miles longer!

Run #20 Tuesday, July 29th: 25-Minute Recovery Run - 2.77 miles 9:25 Pace

Run #21: Saturday, August 2nd: 8-Mile-Long Run - 9.48 miles 10:33 Pace