I usually take it easy on Friday nights to prepare for my Saturday morning long runs, but last night I showed utter disregard for that and drank alllllll the beer in Seattle. We’re fresh out. Sorry, everyone else!
Luckily this run actually turned out to be awesome due to a number of factors: beautiful weather, a speedy running buddy and a cooperative stomach/body. (My stomach revolted later on in the day, but I’ll get to that in a minute. Excited?)
I ran a mile to meet up with my friend Kory, who was also hungover from a separate occasion, and I figured we would take it easy. The farthest he had ever run before today was 6 miles, so the plan was to run with him around Lake Union (about 6) and then part ways back in Fremont so I could continue on to finish 14.
Here’s the thing about Kory: He’s freakin’ fast. I think he usually runs 6:30 miles or something stupid like that, so I had to tell him to slow the eff down every five minutes or so. (I didn’t get a photo of him, but he looks quite a bit like Kiptyn from The Bachelorette, so just use your imagination.)
Kory still felt good after we finished running around the lake and wanted to do a few more miles, so we ran over to UW, past University Village, through Ravenna Park and through the UW Greek system to get to 45th, which we took all the back back through the U District and Wallingford and to his place high atop Fremont/Phinney.
All that was 10 miles and hilly toward the end, which is all Kory’s fault for choosing the route. I normally wouldn’t subject myself to this shiz on a long run:
I also normally wouldn’t run this fast for 14 miles:
I only got to slow down for the massive hills, so it wasn’t even like miles 8 through 12 were easier. But all things considered — “all things” being how many beers I drank last night — the hills and the pace weren’t all that bad. Just challenging!
I finished off with a speedy last few miles by myself through Fremont and along the Burke-Gilman trail because I felt really, really good. And, wow, holy beautiful sights on the Burke-Gilman!
Lake Union.
Statue of Sri Chinmoy.
Stunning trees along the Fremont Canal.
I always run this trail, but I’ve been running at night and missing all this fall glory! It was just wonderful being out there today.
I didn’t take in any fuel on this run besides Nuun and water, and I wasn’t really hungry when I got home, but obviously I needed to eat something after two hours of running. I got two bites into a banana and one or two slices into an apple before it came right back up. Revenge of the hungover stomach.
Meant to eat it all. Couldn’t even come close.
My icky stomach kindly accepted a single piece of dry toast before I napped for a few hours. I did not feel good at all and have no idea how that run went so well when I felt so terrible afterward.
I decided Friday night was my last hurrah and I won’t be drinking again until after the marathon! Trust me, that’s an easy decision to make when you felt the way I did this afternoon. Urgh.
I feel back to normal now and whipped up my very favorite dinner of all time — tuna casserole — which I ate a ton of to fill my sad, empty tummy. So good.
Now I just have a 20-miler next weekend and then I taper for the marathon! Time is just flyyyyyying by. I’m so excited.
Good luck to everyone running the NYC Marathon tomorrow!!! I’m super excited for Theodora, Brenna and all y’all who are so lucky to be running such an incredible event!
Dev on Running 