the time machine

Some of you may have seen this movie, probably the recent re-make with Guy Pearson. It wasn't all that good of a movie, especially when compared to the original made in 1963 or so. As you probably guessed a scientist creates a time machine and travels in the same spot while the world changes and evolves around him. In a sense he can watch everything move and grow and die and yet he is just still and safe inside the machine.

That was me today. I was just in time machine mode. The legs were the machine and I was just along for the ride. People came and went, then new people, and after them, more people. 2 1/2 hours of this. Yes the soccer complex is nice, but I really need to expand out to a trail or something longer than 1.1 miles. All told it was about 18 laps around. Now 18 is just a number and in now way depicts the effort of a long run. These are miles, and I am running them. It is no easy task. For the first few miles I was just calculating, how many more times will I have to run it now, and so on. At 8 my right toe connection at the ball of my foot started hurting. It didn't let up for at least 6 miles. That was painful, but it didn't really bother me because I was running whether the toe said ouch or not.

Passing by people. Over and over. Same people, then after an hour, new people, new dogs. One dog jumped at me, grrreat. No big deal. Kept the legs turning. My goal that got me through this was trying to run the last half faster than the first. That is what we running folk call a negative split. Not an easy thing to do. So I almost made my last 8 in under an hour, but was about a minute and a half off (even with kicking my own butt). Still close is good and I was close. At 4 miles left all I was doing was math and I knew I'd be cutting it close. The legs were burning though and I was breathing pretty good too. Still kept going. Didn't have much left for the last mile like I thought I would, but pulled it through to the finish.

I'm not sure what drove me to run that fast. It's not like I was in a real race (and you shouldn't be racing an event you haven't even run before......) But I guess that's just me. It's what got me decent times in high school, so why not. Well a good run overall, I'll have to check ipod and see the splits. I'm kind of leaning towards slow slide. We'll see.

18(20)miles. 52 degrees. GM 134