11.5 Miles!!! - My Longest Run Ever. By Far.

That was a long run.

I got up early and had some breakfast. I'm continuing to experiment with different food in the morning before my run. Today I tried a banana and peanut butter. Of course, I'm a little picky about my bananas. I like them a little bit green on the ends. Once they turn too yellow or get brown spots, I don't like them anymore. (My brother likes them this way too.)


I got to the park at 8:20, so I wouldn't be in a rush before the run starts. There is a bathroom in the park right where we meet, and they open it at 8:00am. This is handy, because running when you have to pee is pretty uncomfortable. Well, this morning it was locked! Oh no! I had to go dashing around Park Slope looking for someplace that had a bathroom. I was considering the bushes in the park, but that was going to be a very last resort...

There is a little diner/cafe where I get out of the subway, and I saw a guy walk out of there. I asked him if I could use their restroom, and he looked totally perplexed. Then I asked for "el bano" and he smiled and said "yes!" I am so happy I learned some Spanish. It comes in handy sometimes. I made it back to the park just in time.

This week our hill training begins, so the long runs had some extra hills built in.

I ran with my friend Sarah today. Neither one of us are beginner runners, but we are beginner marathoners. We sort of straddle that line between beginner and intermediate. So we decided to do the intermediate run distance today. The run was a 5 mile loop around Prospect Park first - (you do one section of the park twice to make it 5 miles), then repeat the big hill at the top (1.25 miles each way). After that we turned around and did the loop of the park the other way (3.3 miles) and repeated the other big hill in the park (.5 miles each way).

At the end of the run, I could really feel it. My muscles in my hips were tired and sore, my left hamstring was sore, and my right calf was hurting behind my knee. When we finally stopped, I felt like Gumby. I felt like my legs weren't attached to me.

We had our Honored Teammate breakfast afterwards. I walked over to Two Boots Restaurant (a pizza joint that is a mix of Louisiana Style & Italian Style - hence the "two boots") where we were eating. I was so hungry! I devoured a bunch of biscuits, a pancake, some fruit, potatoes, and a hot chocolate with whipped cream. Our honored teammate is a young girl in her 20's who is a Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor. She was very sweet, and she was almost apologetic that her experience with cancer and remission wasn't so bad. She said the worst thing that happened to her was pneumonia, and that has made running difficult for her ever since. She has done a few half-marathons, and she will be doing New Jersey with us.