18.5 miles of hard work

Ughh...last really long run today. 2.5 hours, approximately 18.5 miles. I can't stop thinking about that verse in the Sound of Music; "far, a long, long way to run." I've felt great on my long runs but today, I was feeling pretty flat and it was apparent around 9-10 miles into it that finishing this run would take a lot of hard work. I ran east along the WO&D trail to the Custis Trail into Arlington and made it just about 1 mile outside of the Ballston area before turning back. At about 14 miles, I started to feel my muscles fatiguing, the effects of 21 straight training days without a day off. I was cramping up. I swallowed my last two Thermolyte tablets (300mg of sodium each) and hoped they would do the trick. I don't think my body was cramping because it was dehydrated. It was cramping today because it was tired. I managed to ward off the cramping in my legs but a weird cramp wanted to creep up my neck and left shoulder. I focused on breathing, relaxing my arms, and shoulders. I managed to negatively split my run by 1.5 minutes.

My thoughts wandered from pace, stride count, and intensity to what gets you through an Ironman or anything difficult in life for that matter. The carbon fiber bike, the fancy running shoes, the slick wheels, aero helmet, and wetsuit, these are all tools for job. Peripheral devices. Ironman doesn't care if you have the most expensive bike, six pack abs, sleekly sculpted leg muscles, or how good you look with your shirt off. These things are all smoke and mirrors. It doesn't matter how fast and slick the car you drive is. What matters is what's in your head and in your heart. If you've worked hard on developing the fitness, then all you need to do is execute a smart race then let your head and your heart take over after mile 18 on the run.