The Longest Yard

Sometimes when you leave out the door, you just know that you are going. You're not sure exactly where, or how far, or even how long. Left foot, right foot; feet, feet, feet! The feet and legs carry you off, and away you go. I knew I was going to attempt a long run. I was looking at 14-16 miles as a reasonable cap. The route was going to out and back, as the loop and a half around main post to get 15 was not something I wanted to repeat today.

Despite my bad go arounds with the River Walk in the past, I decided that it wasn't the route; it was I that was having the problems those days, not the path.

At 5 miles out, I started seriously considering 16 miles. Then at 6 miles out, I started looking at pushing a few more miles. As it is over 2 mile to the entrance to the River Walk, and I was calculating my mileage on the path, I knew I would have a buffer. I never realized it was a full half mile buffer.

At 7 and 8 miles out, I really felt as if I had more to go. So I moved out for the 9 mile mark, or I should say, what I thought was the 9 mile mark. I finally reached the backside of Ridgedon Park one hour and fourteen minutes, and took the picture below showing the relationship of the Chattahoochee River and the River Walk. You can see one of the light blue mile marker signs at the left side of the picture.


It had taken me 2 water fountain stops to make it here. I took few drinks of Powerade, said hello to another runner, and tossed my Camelbak on again. I tried to keep up a good pace for the second half, and maintained for quite a while.

I had a water fountain stop at around mile 11, then a Powerade break at about mile 13. I was really surprised at how quickly the miles were going down. This would later come to haunt me, but as I left out from my latest stop, and moved into Oxbow Meadows (a nature observatory) I was feeling pretty good. Again, a scheduled grab-n-go at a water fountain, then back onto Fort Benning.

I felt some of my speed going, and I tried to up my pace many times, only to realize that the assent back onto post was starting to take a toll. I was going up hills, and I was fighting some of them, but still winning. Across the street from the old Infantry Museum, I pulled out my Powerade and phone. I estimated that I was about 2 miles, or roughly 16 minutes from da house and I wanted to let HouseHold 6 know where I was.

My oldest daughter answered, and I gave her the info. The last of the Powerade went down the hatch (it was a small bottle) and then the pack went back on. I could now feel my speed waning. Familiar ground, at the golf course…speed increasing…one more water fountain coming up. I turned on the water and got some on my neck, then on my head. It wasn't a hot day, but the water felt great. I may have then swigged too much, but I got water and moved out …

That is, I was trying to move out. "Legs, engage," I said. Nothing but a fast walk. "Let's GO!" Then I thought of what I say to my troops, and repeated it. "Hurry up. (pause) hurry up." Not a yell, but a chant. The legs got the hint that I wasn't done, and we fought up the hilly trail from main post to home. No blazing speed left, but not going to quit.

There I was at my street, and the turn, and down to the starting point. I stopped the watch. Not a bad time. I looked at the GPS.

Wow … Bottom Line: 19 miles in 2:34:30. Average 8:08 mile pace, but I think that the last miles slowed down the fantastic first and middle miles