Rewards

I perform my long runs as a set of 3 mile loops in my neighborhood. The route is a mix of running along the road and on trails through wooded commons areas, including sections along  a small pond and a brook. I do one loop clockwise and reverse direction for the second. At each return to home, I have a bottle of Gatorade to sip before starting off again. The result is that I think of an 18 mile run not as 6 consecutive loops, but 3 long out-and-backs.

In winter, I run on memory of where I am in the looping pattern, not based on split number on my watch. The cold wind keeps my eyes too watery to read my watch and I also have no desire to bare skin peeling back layers of clothing to get to my watch.

Today, I ran....and ran. When I finished and came inside, Denise remarked that I'd taken a long time for 18 miles. Starting at 6:30 AM, I was astonished to realize it was 10 AM. Upon scrutinizing my spit times on my watch I realized that I had done 7 loops, not 6. I accidentally did 21 miles vice my planned December long runs of only 18.

The brought me substantial gratification. The weather was fairly tough this morning: 31 F with blustery winds bringing the wind chill down to 20 F. In my 6th year of running, at the age of 55, I ran 21 miles accidentally. This is reward.