Long Run day.

It’s all relative.

Today my long run is eight miles. Two weeks ago it was twenty. Training is now a finely tuned science, and even though I feel like I could run 20 miles or more at the drop of the hat, training plans say NO! Even for professionals. Compare this to the interview with Dick Beardsley at the end of the London Marathon in 1981, that I blogged about the other day, he had run three competitive marathons in three months. That would be frowned upon in serious marathon circles today.

 I chose to run in Norwood Young America today, not because I had run there nearly all week and enjoyed the change of scenery. But because my favourite coffee truck was in the town. I would be able to treat myself to a coffee after the run. If you follow this fledgling blog for a while, you will notice that long runs to the coffee shop are an important part of my training plans.

Running through both Norwood and Young America would give me the chance to get some pictures of the neat old ballpark I saw on Tuesday. The Norwood loop is four miles, the Young America one, three. As I needed to run eight miles today, I needed to find a mile out there. If I find I need to do this on a run, I’ll run around the perimeter of parking lots, or run a crenellated pattern through city blocks. Even running the long way around a corner can add up. Races are measured on the shortest distance around a corner. If you run the longest route around a curve, you may only add a few hundredths of a mile. But if you do that round 20 corners, then you’re well in the way to adding a quarter of a mile to your run.

As usual I started with a quick warm up at the gym before heading out. It was very breezy out there and the temperatures were only in the upper 50’s compared to the low 70’s earlier in the week. There was a positive chill in the air.

Perhaps that made me run a little quicker, just to get warm. I circumnavigated a parking lot or two to get some extra distance in the bank straight away and headed up to the old ballpark.

It’s called “Willkommen Park”. It’s from another era.

The view from the right field fence

Welcome to Willkommen Park

Wonderful message on the outer wall of the grandstand

A last look at the ballpark

I said goodbye to the park and the wind blew me down the hill. Then as I passed one of the towns many churches, I spied Elephant Joe’s truck hidden in the trees.

I can see the coffee truck. Can you?

However, I still had 5 miles to go before I could get the days caffeine fix. I carried on under the highway and became fascinated with the sound of my feet striking the tarmac echoing around the tunnel walls. So soft. Quite the surprise. I expected a harder sound. 

I ran on. 

At one point I bemoaned the lack of garbage cans on the trail as I had to carry my sticky, used Hammer Gel packet for almost a mile. 

It was an unremarkable run, which is the way you want a “long” run. Pretty quickly, I was back in the parking lot where I started. I had found enough car parks to run around to get that extra mile in.

I cooled down and headed over to the coffee truck to get my reward.

The reward

That’s it. I’m shutting down until Friday and the William A Irvin 5K. I’m going to rest a few twinges and niggles I have. They don’t bother me when running. But I’ll rest them all the same. See you at the start line of Grandmas Marathon.