We decided to do our longest distance training run today instead of Sunday. That meant that I wouldn’t have to get up early on Sunday and I could go out to New City on Saturday night. That plan seemed so much more plausible before I pounded 62.5km over an eight hour period today.
My official excuse is that my party clothes don’t fit anymore. It looks like someone implanted contraband plastic bags in my legs. My waist is fine, but my thighs are grossly out of proportion. And I don’t have fat person pants.
This was the longest training run I’ve ever done. The planned route had an interesting concept; only cross two bridges. And the bridges were the furthest two that pedestrians can take in Edmonton; Rundle Park and Anthony Henday. Looking at the map, we left the city limits on both sides of Edmonton.
The weather, for the most part, was very good for running. It was overcast and cool. However, the weather report lied and it got sunny in the afternoon.
There was a 22km section where there was no place to refill water. So before we left, I went over my orienteering map for Laurier park and found where all the water taps were. The first one was broken; the top came off of it. I couldn’t find the second. The third one was fully operational. Unfortunately it was right next to a big picnic party. After 45km we didn’t care. Plowed right through it and tried to take over the tap. There were a lot of kids playing around, having water fights. They also kept cutting in line ahead of us. But eventually we were able to soak our heads and fill our water backpacks.
The last 15km was especially bad, because the sun really came out. We split up as we were all going different speeds.
I discovered that my shoes are only really good for 58km before they stop working. Better than my colleagues. The cushioning was gone by then. Still, I made it all the way back to our marshalling point. I actually tacked on half a kilometre extra so that I would be at one half of the distance of the Death Race. And now I can’t help but think that if I had run 800 meters further, I would have completed a marathon and a half.