After 20 years not running, and a couple trials (up to 3 miles) in December, on January 1st I ran 5 miles straight for the first time. And it didn't kill me.
I ran 3,416 miles in 2017. I was on my feet a little longer than that, but those 3,416 miles are true running. And yes, I walked too, but based on my movement percentages I never finished a run with less than 99% movement.
The first half-marathon
I hit the half-marathon mark sometime in March. I hit the mark right in front of the McDonnalds at the Herndon K-Mart plaza, and I had misjudged how much time I had available to run, so there I was 3 miles away from home, no juice left, and I was already 15 minutes late for work (I telecommute). I called Ivette and she picked me up. In the whole year I only had her pick me up twice, the second time was due to a heat wave, I ran out of steam on mile 15 and I played the "fuck it" card. I stopped at Trailside Park in Herndon, got a Slurpee and a cinnamon roll and chilled in the park until Ivette picked me up.
The Wall
Hitting mile 13 was also my introduction to "the wall." I had no clue that glycogen depletion was a thing, but I wasn't surprised when I complained at the runners store that I was running out of juice somewhere between miles 10 and 13, without any pain or breathing discomfort. I just ran out of juice.
They asked me if I was eating. That's when I had to learn about eating WHILE I ran. I experimented with both gels and chews and eventually settled on gels simply because they are easier to dispense. I tried a lot of CLIF, GU, Gatorade, Honey Stinger products. The Gatorade chews are dirt cheap, but they are a royal pain in the ass to dispense so I quit using them. CLIF, GU and Honey Stinger are awesome, but I eventually settled on two CLIF products, one that has 100mg of Caffeine per portion, one that has 50mg. I originally stacked these in 5-mile intervals but eventually I found that I was doing a lot better with 45-minutes between snacks.
And no more wall. Now my limit is usually how much abuse I can inflict on my feet. My lungs are never a problem, even after 20+ miles, and my legs just get stiff. But my feet just kill me after mile 20.
The Uber Ride of Shame
I took the Uber ride of shame three times. The first time I ran out of fucks after 15 miles, which meant walking from Herndon, VA and I wasn't ready to do that. That was also my very first Uber ride, which I enjoyed a lot even if the driver couldn't navigate worth shit.
The second Uber ride of shame was funny because I ran into Ivette (my wife) right as I was getting ready to order the ride, and she had been thinking about bailing out from HER walk, about 3 miles away from home. Our driver was excellent and he actually knew the town very well.
The last Uber ride of shame was a preventive measure. My ankle started to act up a little under 3 miles from home, and I didn't think it was wise to walk it. This time my Uber driver knew the town so well that he actively argued against the voice prompts from his GPS, something that both Ivette and myself do in our own cars ("are you kidding me? why would I drive through THAT at this time of the day?"). The ankle was strained a little bit, it actually hurt more walking than running, which to this day makes no sense. I wore KT tape for about two weeks, but most of the relief was needed for walking, it really didn't hurt when I ran, and it eventually went away.
My Town Keeps Getting Smaller
My understanding of the size of my town changed dramatically over the past year. Every time I am out in the car, the "uh, I have run through here" moments keep happening farther away from the house. This reached crazy proportions when I actually managed to run across route 28 and back for the first time, it really felt unbelievable at the time. Later I managed to run three miles further West, which put me at the Ashburn Village Boulevard. I other words, I was now running from Reston to friggin Ashburn and back.
I also ventured towards the East and made the Vienna run on the W&OD (14-mile round trip from Lake Anne, can be stretched to about 16 miles if you hit Beulah Road) so many times that I got bored of it. Anyone that has seen my map routes comments on how I am always turning all over the place, I do this because it keeps me from being able to see further than a quarter mile or so away. When you are riding the W&OD between Ashburn and Vienna it is very straight, the only real variety that you get is the elevation changes due to the pedestrian bridges, the dangerous street crossings and a few nice hills between the Dulles Toll Road and Vienna. It also becomes a cyclist superspeedway during the nice weather months, so you are one of hundreds running, with a dozen or so cyclists zipping by at very high speeds every few minutes.
The longest run for the year was about 21 miles, I ran to Smiths Switch Station on the W&OD and back. It destroyed my toes. I now wear silicone toe caps which in theory should help me avoid the major mangling I went through in that particular run.
Another crazy side-effect of all of these miles is that my "home" zone is now a 2-mile bubble. If I am running 16 miles and I hit the area within my "home" zone I relax, I am home. I am going to make it fine no matter what. Even at my lowest speed it means I'll be there in less than 25 minutes, which is the equivalent of being just around the corner. So I run towards route 7, then to Sterling, down to the W&D and back home, and right as I see the Reston Town Center I hit my "home" zone. This is when just 100 pounds ago the idea of walking from my house to the Reston Town Center would freak me out because of the (then) seemingly impossible hills I would have to climb if I took the trails.
Racing
I raced twice: a 5-miler charity run in Ashburn, which was so-so but I beat my goal time, and a 5K in Herndon, another charity run, which was a blast. Still, I didn't click with racing so I stopped signing for them. I already run 6-7 days a week, those races basically mean I have to waste hours to drive there and back when I can just spend those hours running.
Shoes!
I ran through a ridiculous amount of shoes through the year, and I learned a lot about my "right" shoe and how to get the most bang for my buck. I posted a very long analysis here.
I also ran through some extreme weather. It varied from terrible blizzards early in the year, to 1200% humidity during the worst of the summer, then terrible wind chill that is still happening today. For today's run it hit 2° F when adjusted for windchill, which was rough, but I still think it was nowhere as hard as running in 100% humidity.
Gear
I started the year with my faithful Fitbit Charge 2, which helped me walk off 70+ pounds without feeling like I was doing a lot of work. But for running it simply didn't measure up. So I switched to a Garmin Forerunner 235, which so far has been fantastic.
I also learned the importance of having a great headlight, and I lost my first one when it slipped off my hat. I tried to replace it with a clip-on that didn't measure up, so when I replaced it with another of my original favorite design, I got the idea of using Velcro to stick the lamp to my hat instead of using the supplied head band. I have now run a couple hundred miles with this arrangement and the lamp has failed to fall off the hat.
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