To run or not to run...

John was going to be at my place by 9 am and I really wasn't sure if I could run with my sore calf. I was also worried that if I ran on it, it could make it worse. I was really nervous. The first thing I did was massage it with "the Stick" and walked on it as much as I could to warm it up. About a half hour before John showed up I decided to run up to the stop sign and back, just to see if I could run on it. I figured if I couldn't, then I'd call John and tell him not to show up.

I did run to the stop sign and back and it was workable. I changed my running style and went slow, but I was able to run. So now it was a waiting game. When John came and we started to run, how would it hold up? When John showed up we decided to run in the city and not in the escarpment. The idea was that we would do 30 minutes then return to my house and John would continue to finish his long run. Just as we started, Jamie and his wife walked by and Jamie even said to be careful because that is a terrible spot to have an injury.

We started slow and at the 15 minute point I felt okay. I was running differently but it was working. Then I decided to go to the 30 minute turnaround point, which we did and we ended up doing just over an hour and returning to my house. My calf was still feeling the same as when we started, so after drinking some water at my place we continued on. We got to the 90 minute point and it was still the same, so I said to John that I'd keep going. Then we passed the 2 hour mark, then 2 1/2 hour mark. We were scheduled to do 2 hours and 40 minutes, but I really wanted to get in a 3 hour run. It was the distance I was suppossed to run last week and I wasn't able to do it due to my knee injury. I asked John if he was up for it, I really wanted to be able to say I did a 7 hour long bike ride and a 3 hour training run the next day. John agreed.

Both of us couldn't believe how slow that time was going. Every time I looked at my watch it was 5 - 10 minutes behind where we thought we should be. John was mentally prepared for a 2 hour 40 minute run and not a 3 hour run, which makes it more difficult. At the 2:45 point, I was starting to get worried that my calf wouldn't last and maybe I should stop, but John helped me through that by saying something witty. Mentally it was a tough run, whenever you run through the city the runs always seem longer than running in the country.

We ended up finishing our 3 hour run and covering 19.05 miles at a 9:25 pace. It was much faster than it felt. It felt great to finish. Physically I felt fine, mentally it was tough, but most importantly it helped me feel more confident that I got in a very important long run and that I can still run. After stretching, I spent some time icing the calf and I'm hoping it will get better day by day.

At least I got in a long run and it was 3 hours to boot! As Borat would say "very nice".