21 MILE DEATH MARCH ON SPRINGWATER

My twenty one mile "death march" on the Springwater Corridor Trail. Home base is circled in green.

First off, I'll start with some good news. I feel much better and am almost back to 100% after my illness scare. Almost immediately after posting about being sick I started to feel better. I went on a nice easy run that evening and felt great afterward and when I awoke the next morning I felt almost normal again. So hopefully that crisis has been averted.

On Saturday I set a new record for longest run... 21 miles. Why 21? Well, I don't remember why. When Alejandro and I were originally planning to do a long run I could swear he wanted to do 21, but was planning routes for 20 miles. So eventually I planned a route we both liked and tacked on an extra mile. I guess I really wanted to set a new "longest run."

We ran mostly on the Springwater Corridor Trail. It is a long, 21 mile pedestrian/bike path that runs through SE Portland and into Gresham all the way to Boring, OR. At one point I wanted to run the entire length... now I am not so sure. Not because of this run, which was painful, but because it really wasn't all that scenic. It is a nice path with limited road crossings and I really appreciated that. There just wasn't a ton to look at. It also was pretty exposed, which isn't good when you are marathon training in the summer. Our "home base" was the same spot I ran my 15.4 mile run from last June.

Part of the trail we ran on in SE Portland (Matt.Picio/Flickr)

We did a twelve mile out and back east (so six each way) onto the Springwater Trail all the way to the Lents neighborhood of Portland at SE 122nd Street. We started at 10:30am and it was fairly sunny already so I could tell it was going to be a tough run. My body also wasn't feeling so great depsite going slow (9:45/mi). I was already feeling kind of beat at the mile six turnaround, which was surprising. I ran six miles Thursday night at the same easy speed and felt AMAZING the whole time. Then took Friday off. So I am not sure why I wasn't feeling it Saturday.

I had to pee from miles 2-11 so that wasn't fun. I could have ducked into the bushes but it wasn't so bad that I felt the need to do that. Plus, the trail was fairly populated, but it was mostly bikers. I'd put the biker/pedestrian ratio at about 10 to 1. Maybe most runners aren't stupid enough to go running on the Springwater Trail when it is hot. I finally got relief at a bathroom about a mile from the car. At this point I already really wanted to be done.

When we got back to the car we refilled our bottles and took a short break before heading back out. This time we'd be running the final northern leg of the trail up to OMSI and back. It was 4.5 miles each way, which I thought make be it pass by faster. Only 4.5 miles! Ugh. Around mile 14 I really wanted to be done. My body started to hurt and the sun was really beating down on us (ended up 84F when we finished). When we finally hit the turnaround at OMSI (took seemingly forever) we took a short break and I stretched on the sidewalk. My muscles felt really sore and used. Not a happy camper.

Eventually we started the trudge back. Those last 4.5 miles were a real bear. Some of the hardest of my life. I was in a fair amount of pain and it took everything in me not to stop and walk. Alejandro eventually ended up about a minute ahead of me and I was okay with that. Being by myself allowed me to make pathetic noises and swear at nobody in particular. This really, really sucked. It was hot, I was low on water, my body hurt like a motherfucker, and the trail was ugly and seemed to go on forever.

You know what though? I finished the damn thing. I ran that MFer into the finish. I think my body even felt a little better than after my twenty mile run a month ago. I was in a lot of pain but very proud of myself. Alejandro and I sat and stretched and recovered for about ten minutes before hopping in the car to drive away.

Summary of my last three months of training. Pretty good!

Lessons learned? Well, first of all that long runs in the summer can really suck on the wrong trail. I am not about to wake up at 6am for a training run, so I'll need to choose other, more shaded routes when I do a run of this length. However, I did it. I am capable of running 21 miles in that heat. Come marathon time, it will be a lot cooler and my body will be a lot fresher. So this was great training. I am capable of pushing through the pain and finishing. I was running for 3.5 hours yesterday, which is about how long my marathon will take. So I can run for 3.5 hours, I'll just be doing a faster pace.

This run also solified that I will be doing three 20 mile training runs in preparation for the marathon. I was having visions of doing four, but I've discovered they suck. So three should do! :) Also, after Hood to Coast next week, I really only have 5 more weekends of training, and the weekend before is a taper. So squeezing two 20 milers into there is not going to happen, especially since I will likely need a "rest week" after HTC.

All told: 21.03 miles in 3:24:39. 9:44/mile.