A 30 Miler With Bacon Cheeseburgers

On Wednesday evening after work I headed out for a 30 miler. It was a complete downpour all day but when I started running it was only sprinkling. I packed a poncho just in case. My route was a loop around Sand Hollow Reservoir. I like it here because you can go long stretches of time without ever seeing a car. (Code for "You don't have to search for a porta potty.")

After eight miles, a few different things happened: 1) the poncho literally saved my life, and 2) I had the most embarrassing experience of my life. I'll save that for tomorrow.

My sister-in-law Rachel is a brand new runner training for her first 5k. I really admire new runners because I know how difficult it is in the beginning. Mel and Rachel had a few miles on their training plan so they came out and joined me to run for three miles which was fun.

We got to the overlook of Sand Hollow Reservoir right in time to catch a positively awesome sunset. This is a reservoir where people fish, and boat, and water ski. But from this view it looks like a little puddle.

 

After soaking in the sunset for a few minutes we headed back to their car. We appreciated the positive encouragement that was spray painted on the road.

After they got back to the car I continued on my own. Eventually it got dark and I just kept moving....mile after mile....hour after hour. Finally I reached civilization again and may have (did) stop at a gas station to fill my water bottle with Coke. At mile 23 I was starving. It was almost midnight and I hadn't eaten since noon.

I knew there was a Wendy's up ahead and prayed that they would still be opened. Thankfully the drive through was! I sheepishly um....walked up to the drive through. But they said their rules required that you couldn't WALK through a DRIVE through. I almost started crying.

Literally 10 seconds later an angel appeared!

One of my dialysis patients pulled up in the drive through! I hoped I wasn't hallucinating. I said "Wow! I'm so happy to see you! If I gave you some money, would you buy a few hamburgers for me?" Of course he did. Those two junior bacon cheeseburgers were the best food I ate all week. The only bad part is that I had gut rot and chunky burps for the next hour but it was more than worth it. 

I was surprised how many of these I saw all over the road over the last few miles:

The other time I took my camera this week was a 10 miler on Saturday. I went out to a dirt road near Diamond Ranch Academy where there are some nice non-technical hills.

I was surprised how good I felt. It was the only run of the week where I didn't feel like I was having to coax my legs along. That could be due to residual effects from the Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers.

I use the blog as my training log so here is the summary for the week:
Monday, August 20th 2012: Morning: 8 miles @ 11:11 per mile, Evening: 5 miles @ 10:27 per mile
Wednesday, August 22nd 2012: 30 miles @ 12:27 per mile
Friday, August 24th 2012: 7 miles @ 11:21 per mile
Saturday, August 25th 2012: 10 miles @ 11:34 per mile

Tomorrow I'll fill you in on my humiliating experience during the 30 miler. I need another therapy session before I can talk about this in public.