Made a beeline south and didn’t switch on the iPod until mile seven, which found me on Dow Road behind Carolina Beach. I was following last week’s route with the exception that there would be no turn onto Loggerhead Road towards the Aquarium at the bottom of the island. I was surprised by the number of vehicles ruining my solitude at this early hour, but most had a boat in tow and I suppose they had also risen early to spend a day on the water.
When I passed Fort Fisher it was also active and per the signage they were staging a civil war re-enactment this morning. Somewhat amusing to be striding past the small contingent dragging cannons out into the field and setting them up!
The running route was simply going to be to run thirteen miles in either direction, but when I reached the turn-around mileage I could see the boat ramp at the very end of Pleasure Island, so I had to add a half mile to claim I had run the entire distance from my house to the end of the road. I really felt good at this stage so it was an easy decision, and maintaining my slow pace, I rebounded back towards Snow Cut without hitting the ennui wall like the last two times.
It was warming up, however, and by the time I was nearing the bridge I had almost completely drained the hydro pack and both water bottles, mandating a stop at the Food Lion to score a bottle of water. By this point I recognized I would be putting in twenty-seven miles today, so I held onto the water bottle until I had plodded another five miles until my Sports Watch indicated I had logged 25 miles.
At this point I began walking and savored my bottle of water, despite it having lost the icy coldness during its five miles in the sun. I also had another Hammer Gel as I was feeling a bit light headed, but picked it back up and ran the last mile-and-a-half to complete a satisfying finale for the long program.
It felt great to add a mile onto the scheduled 26 and my attitude is in a good place. Although I remain uncertain how adequately I am prepared to endure fifty miles, I am getting comfortable that with the reduced workload over the next few weeks I will be as ready as can be…the training programs haven’t let me down yet.
Even better, my blood sugar was 89 at the conclusion. A bit low, but my primary concern with the Lantus only regimen is that it wouldn’t allow my body to absorb sufficient energy to sustain me during long hauls. But this morning it kept me going for 27 miles and was apparently still able to keep my blood sugar from spiking, so excellent feedback. The other plus here is that I haven’t been saddled with the sudden low blood sugar episodes that usually hit me around mile seven when I injected Humalog before taking off.
So I’ll rest easy the rest of today. Even though this was the last really long run, I still have ten miles to knock off tomorrow and then my first “rest” week begins, and it still has 48 miles to conquer. But the good news is that next Saturday’s run is only 16 miles. Did I say only??? J
And to top it all off, I sat down at the PC after lunch and saw another contribution came in for the Ultra Fund Raider. Thank you, Megan!
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