20 miler winner and missing out on the fun

First, I had probably one of my best 20 milers in recent memory on Sunday. I wanted to run at or around 8:20 pace and was able to beat that and then some at 8:15 pace – with more gas in the tank to spare.

As good as it ended up, the run honestly didn’t start out all that well. My iPod. GONE. DONE. FINISHED. Going to buy a new one. Also, my shins were screaming for the first 3-4 miles until I got off of the sidewalks and onto the dirt of the Phoenix Canals. Finally, I needed to take a small ‘pit stop’ nearly exactly at the half way point. By ‘small’ of course I mean 6 minutes of 1 on 1 time with the grocery store bathroom. The good thing is that my stomach didn’t bother me much before and didn’t bother me afterwards. I didn’t count the 6 minutes towards my overall pace, which is probably cheating just a little bit.



After my run, I decided that I would take the Adam version of an ‘ice bath’ to sooth my aching shins. What is the Adam version you ask? Surprisingly it doesn’t involve big hairy Greek men in towels telling me about the ‘old country’. It does however involve my un-heated spa water at a man-bits shrinking temperature of 50 degrees. Here I am doing my best to maintain some level of composure. I think that I only served to do an excellent Little Red Riding Hood impression.



I still have goosebumps thinking about it

Lastly, I’m conflicted. It seems like during the weekends of uber long runs (say, longer than 17 miles or 2.25 hours) the evening before is somewhat shot. The night before I don’t want to go out and party it up because my run will be a miserable shit fest (figuratively, not literally – usually). I like hanging with friends and having a fun time, but before a long run it just doesn’t seem worth it. During my 20 miler this weekend, I started to ask myself in various voices, my favorite being the Steve Urkel voice: “What am I missing out on?” usually followed by “did I do that!?” in the same Urkel voice. Honestly, depending on the day and how fun the stuff is that I am missing, I could go either way.

• Watching everyone get sloppy drunk and stumbling all over the place like they are on Nyquil? Pass
• Sharing funny stories with friends, complaining about work, and giving my brother in law shit about his political beliefs? *Ding ding* I’d take some of that please.

But, I do know one thing – I sure do like awesome 20 milers. And sometimes tough choices have to be made.

How do you find the balance of not letting a longer long run rule your life? Or, I guess DO you let it rule your life? Because if you do, that would be just fine with me too.