14 Mile Run - Saturday 7/16

Today's 14 mile run was certainly a change of pace. It was my first time during training that I ran with an actual running group. I would not have done this on my own; it was only through genuine coincidence that this occurred. At Thursday's softball game, I found out that a fellow Spin-Off is training for the Marine Corps Marathon. He asked if I was with the Arlington Road Runners, and I said no - but he asked how much I had planned to do this week. When I said 14, he said that I had to come try it out - because the group was also doing 14.

The Arlington Road Runners Club meets in Gateway Park in Rosslyn on Saturday mornings. It was a pretty decent-size group; there were at least 50 runners that had showed up. My Spin-Offs friend (Jason), his friend Kate, and I arrived a little late for stretching, but I was fine with this because I never stretch to warm up. (I hear it's bad for you - but that stretching after a run is great for you.)

Before the run, we were broken up into color groups; the red group was the fastest, and orange was second fastest. I stuck with orange, because Jason also preferred to go orange. There would be a few people in each group with directions or a map. It was difficult for me at first to give up this control, but over the course of the run I found that I was more focused on being in the moment versus thinking about how many miles I had left.

From Rosslyn, we started south on the Mount Vernon Trail. The path had decent shade and a change of terrain with wooden boards. Luckily, I did not see the stretch of the terrain where you cross the highway, so I would consider returning to this area. As we headed south on the trail, we saw a bride in her dress and a photographer taking pictures. It was certainly a beautiful place along the river, but the bride must not be a runner or cyclist - it doesn't seem like they anticipated such high traffic of runners. One member in our running group shouted, "You should be running with us!" After that, I said, "At least she fits into her dress!" I felt kind of bad, because she might have heard that as "She doesn't fit into her dress" and that would have been a dagger to the heart on her wedding day.

We continued down the trail and went over the George Mason Bridge into DC. Around this area, I saw the man I have been seeing for months: the dude with two knee braces and gray shorts with orange stripes. I was afraid he would miss seeing me if I took too much of a deviated path!

When we went into DC, we started down Hains Point. This began the two points of frustration for me during the run. The first was that the people with the maps and directions clearly didn't know which way to go. While near Hains Point, we did not continue up Ohio Drive but rather returned to the 14th Street/Highway area. This was the first place where we had to turn around (and there were many more). In spite of this, I followed the "blind" the entire time - and the time on my watch at the end showed that, yes, we did in fact run 14 miles. The second point of frustration was the water stops. It is a great service that the Arlington Road Runners provide - but why do you just stop running in the middle of a run? Since I carried my Powerade with me, I would run circles while other runners would be drinking water or eating a snack.

After getting lost, we had a scary moment. One girl in our group took a nasty fall on a section of the sidewalk that had jutted out. It was a full-blown fall, so we were all worried about her. As it turned out, she didn't get injured; she just got some dirt on her shirt and butt.

As we continued down toward the Lincoln Memorial and up toward the Washington Monument, my running partner asked me to tell him a story - so I talked about Zambia and what the Periclean Scholars are all about. I thought that was fitting, since it is the motivation behind my training. I got through the details of the pre-departure and the first day on the ground. Of course, running is full of distractions, so that conversation cut off when we had to locate the leaders of our group.

We ran around the Capitol Building and back west down the mall. I noticed that there were many tents out, and I wondered if they were left over from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival - or if they were for a new festival. DC always has so many fun festivals around this time of the year.

There was one more water stop on the mall. At this one, my running partner grabbed a piece of watermelon. I quipped that he was lucky to have the ability to eat while running, because I have a sensitive stomach. It was at this point that I felt like a huge jerk, because he informed me that he has pediatric GIST - a rare form of stomach cancer. It was previously treated but has since reoccurred, so he will be running the marathon while a cancer patient. While running, he told me the story of how he came to realize he had cancer - and it's a true miracle that he's alive.

When we rounded the Washington Monument, my running partner's ankle began to feel very painful, so he ran/walked the rest of the way back. He only finished 20 minutes behind me - not bad. I latched on to another group and finished out the run with a lady named Helen. She will be running MCM but is also doing a triathlon this fall.

The run continued along the Rock Creek Park trails. We passed the Kennedy Center and the Watergate Complex, and we ran up into Georgetown on M Street. I can now cross this off of my pre-marathon "to-do" list; this is a key section on the marathon course that I wanted to make sure I had run before October 30. In Georgetown, we passed all of the boutiques, restaurants, and running stores. We saw the Georgetown Cupcake store, which now has large blue stickers that say "DC Cupcakes" on them. (I suspect this is because they are getting some competition from Sprinkles.) We then finished up across the Key Bridge (another item on my pre-marathon "to-do" list) and headed back to the starting point at Gateway Park.

After the run had finished, I stretched, hydrated, and pet a running mom's sheltie. I talked to some of the other runners and was surprised to find that a lot of them were training for Chicago. It's also in October but is especially well known for its flat and fast course; the other runners said that someone would attempt a world record on it this year.

All in all, how did I feel about my first group run? I definitely felt like the time went faster while running in a group and talking. It is good to have the support and to know you're not in this alone. However, there were some serious downfalls. Next time, I would like to know the route beforehand - simply so that we do not get lost. I also felt that the pace was a little slower than what I was expecting, so I might want to bump up to the red group next time. Of all weeks, this was probably the best week for me to be going a slower pace, though; my legs still felt like lead (not injured, but not ready to run at race pace).

Upon returning home, I did my floor and upper body work and immediately took a dip in the pool. This weekend's rest is well-earned. Luckily, I do not have as much physical activity planned as last weekend, so my body can get a true rest. I'll be needing it - because next week is 15!