Have you had an ice bath? What about a 17-mile run? What about a book idea? Would you consider an hour and a half of golf with your son after 3 hours of running? Well, this is how I spent my Sunday.
First off… we did it.
Steve (RW Forum Member: SteveInSocal) and I ventured out into uncharted territory on Sunday: we ran our first 17-miler. The bottom line is, we finished! We didn’t die, we didn’t fall and suffer and call for a helicopter air-lift to the hospital. We did, however, stop at Carl’s JR for NOT a breakfast sandwich but a bathroom break because Steve drank too much coffee before we ran. All-in-all it was a good run and a great day to run!
We started at 6:30 AM.
I stood out in the cold waiting for Steve to get out of his car as he downed his coffee. Not much was said as we just woke up like 10 minutes prior and were still asleep, but we synchronized our Garmin’s and off we went. It was cold.
Fifty Eight minutes and five miles later we were refueling with Cliff Shot Bloks and a granola bar. The first five miles just came and went. An easy five which meant a pretty good outlook for the next twelve. I felt confident at that point and continued on our trek West on Kenneth Road.
It was almost a perfect out and back because at mile 8 Kenneth ended and swooped down to Glenoaks Blvd which is another flat, straight run back home. We had planned on turning back at 8.5 miles but Kenneth didn’t give us that extra half-mile or so and we decided to try Glenoaks Blvd. as our ‘back’.
It was a good idea because first, it was a flatter route than going back up some inclines on Kenneth, and most importantly, at the 12.5 mile mark, Steve needed to release himself of alllll that coffee he drank. We found a Carl’s JR, stopped our Garmins and Steve went in. I decided to stay outside because I was hungry and did not want to smell the food. I stretched my tight calve muscles.
We made our way back up GrandView to get back to neighborhood running as Glenoaks had too many lights. I also knew we had to make up about a mile because our turnaround came too short of our goal. So the detour North was both a good idea but a tough one as it was a pretty decent run up a hill.
This is the point Steve told me about his Sci-Fi story idea. Which I absolutely loved! Running with Steve always reminds me of the one thing I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid but haven’t done yet – and that’s write a novel. Growing up, Steve and I were avid readers, reading Fiction and Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels. We read whatever we could get a hold of. From the J. R. R. Tolkien to Sidney Sheldon to Robert Ludlum to comic books – we read it all. So he pitched me a story and I’m really excited about co-writing this book. We’ll keep you informed. 
Back to the run.
We prepared ourselves with hydration having about 70oz of hydration between the two of us. The CA sun would bare down on us around mile 9 and would wear on us for the rest of the run. Well, that’s what we thought. And yes, it’s better to be prepared than unprepared. I barely got through 15 ounces myself with a lot left over obviously. It stayed in the mid to low 60s throughout the run. It seemed even cooler around mile 13 than it did at mile 5!!! If there was perfect weather to do your first 17-miler, this was the weather. The R&R Marathon in June is supposed to be in the mid-70s, but with the sun out this could be a tough 26.2 miles.
Our sunglass never left our heads. It was great!
We stopped at mile 17 and felt good about it. We walked about a three-tenth’s of a mile home and soon discovered we should have kept running. It was so much harder to walk than to run believe it or not. Weird.
Now on to Ice Baths. During the run we discussed reading about ice baths and recovery. Supposedly an ice bath can take away the pain – as if you didn’t even run 17 miles! So Steve said he’d try it on his feet and let me know what happens.
I decided to put my feet into the tub and fill it with cold water. It wasn’t so bad and actually felt good after a while. I let the water run down my calves and as the tub filled I dared myself to sit in it.
It only took a couple of minutes to get used to the cold but I did it. And… it wasn’t bad at all. Grant it, it wasn’t an ‘ice-bath’ as I didn’t have ice in the house, but it was as cold as ice. And if you were to pour ice in there, I think I would have been able to handle it.
The results weren’t apparent right away. I struggled through the day with pain. Every time I got up from a chair or from bed I was tentative. I was in pain. It didn’t help that I stood out on the putting green and driving range with Jake for an hour and a half later that afternoon.
But this morning, as I got out of bed, I didn’t even think about the pain. I just got out of bed like I didn’t run yesterday. Yes, there’s a little soreness, but as I walked around I realized a 5K recovery run today wouldn’t be too hard. I also felt like I ran a hard 10K versus a long 17-miler! And a hard 10K isn’t that bad on my legs as a 17-miler so I’m feeling good.
So, my assumptions are this – a cold as ice bath helps… But an ice bath probably works like they say it does!
There you have it. Golf after a 17-miler, a cold as ice bath and a novel ready to be written.
Our splits:
MILE SPLIT
Mile 1 0:12:08
Mile 2 0:11:25
Mile 3 0:11:39
Mile 4 0:11:33
Mile 5 0:11:31
Mile 6 0:11:40
Mile 7 0:11:06
Mile 8 0:11:31
Mile 9 0:11:23
Mile 10 0:11:12
Mile 11 0:10:52
Mile 12 0:11:41
Mile 13 0:11:06
Mile 14 0:10:16
Mile 15 0:11:30
Mile 16 0:10:44
Mile 17 0:10:20
Mile 17.32 0:06:07
Total 3:17:44
Ave: 11:25 min miles.