28 July Long Run – 8 miles

So this was the long run that I was anticipating. I was worried enough about it to not sleep well the night before, almost as if I had to sit the O Level Chinese exam again. I kept waking up and my heart beat quite rapidly throughout the night. I also had the strangest dream about being a match-stick (??) that had to get downtown from the Bronx and who refused to get a ride from a rat.

Anyway – I kept making excuses about not going on the run, or at least not running the entire distance. It was pretty pathetic, though I did hurt quite badly from playing tennis yesterday. When I got up at about 6.30, my quads were suffering from quite major muscle ache from yesterday’s tennis foot-work. I ended up going out of the house after letting Sourdough out of the crate, but I wasn’t too optimistic that I’d make the 8 miles.

I plodded for about three miles, doing the usual one mile loops around the neighborhood. I saw the regular Asian old ladies duo who don’t ever return my smile. I’ll persist until I get a response from them. I really can’t remember what I was thinking about except that running doesn’t really hurt the quads and so the muscle ache was quite irrelevant. But I also realized that the back of my legs were hurting. I spent quite a lot time trying to remember the name of the muscle – and I did just as I completed the third mile. But I’ve forgotten it again. The other thing I thought about: the possible objections to psychoanalysis in my dissertation, especially how I’m going to use Freud’s Death of the Father and the Return of the Repressed in this chapter. I need to do it in a manner that doesn’t exalt psychoanalysis as biblical truth, just useful insight. After completing each round I was struck by how many more I had to do if I was going to grind out 8 miles doing the familiar loop.

After round three, I ended up doing the 4.5 Hawk Island route. This turned out to be a good decision. There was more traffic to look out for, thus distracting me from the pain, and once I got to the Park, there were actually quite a few people, mainly walking and largely above 60, walking around the Park. At the beginning of the run I was listening to “Raising Sand”, and it’s quite a nice slogging album. I especially like the song about the Fortune Teller, and I laugh out loud every time Robert Plant delivers the punch-line. Anyway, on the way to the Park, the album ran out so I randomly searched through my ipod and listened to Sonny Stitt blow his horn. What kept me going in the Park was the great scenery, the mirror-like lake, the cool forest segment, the people I met along the way that said “Hi”. I met this girl that I recognize from my runs around the neighborhood. She strides quite impressively, of course, and I think she was running the 4.5 Hawk Island route as well. Anyway, she was just entering the Park when I was leaving, and we exchanged “Hellos”.

So, leaving the Park, two things happened, My ipod went into “hang mode” and I held on a really long time before I managed to get it reset. Second. my legs were going on me. My calves, quads, and those muscles at the back of my legs whose names I remembered then forgot were really hurting. I slowed down considerably on the return route to Dover’s Crossing. I did however, manage to hold out and ran what I know to be about 0.6 of a mile in order to make up the full 8 mile distance.

I will say that I’m relieved that I did it. I had a strange sensation walking into the apartment and sipping water after the slog. It seemed that the air smelled really fragrant. Maybe it was a Margery Kempe moment but I suspect it had to do with all the chemicals flushing through my system. I’m still pretty elated – and this is about half and hour after the run, which I warmed down from, as usual, by walking Sourdough a mile.