I Ran to Another County, NBD

Today I did my first long training run. I've been following my schedule (as much as possible) but today was the first day I had to run a distance longer than any of my road races. I set my alarm for 6 AM, but obviously woke up at 4:30. I had this dream where I was trying to move my dad's car before Larry David came to yell at him for his over-the-line parking job. This old man was boxing me out around the garage and somehow I ended up with a $1,000 parking fee for my efforts. Oh, and wait, the dream was almost entirely in Spanish. Fun fact - I can still occasionally dream in Spanish and I can even speak it when blackout drunk. It's been videotaped in Mexico, I swear.

I set out sometime between 6:30 and 6:40 AM... yeah, I never hit start on my Nike+ GPS and didn't notice until close to 3 miles into the run. By studying the data from previous runs, I have determined that I ran a little more than 2.75 miles, but I decided to round it down to 2.5 to account for inaccuracies and the amount of walking I did to avoid being hit by cars. Those white lines on the road aren't guidelines drivers! You need to stay within them!

I ran from the Vernon School up 106 to 25A, and then headed east. And headed east some more. I ran from Oyster Bay, through Laurel Hollow, to Cold Spring Harbor. Then I started spotting other runners enjoying the sunrise and sea air. Is anyone else wondering how "historic" Cold Spring Harbor does any business with the stores they're offering these days? The Window Box (a small boutique where I purchased most of my Eliza B, CK Bradley, CJ Lang, and Milly items over the years) is now closed and at least three other places are under construction. I continued on to the town of Huntington.

It's seriously weird to see Huntington early in the morning before anything besides Starbucks is open. There were a few disgruntled homeless people milling about and some folks walking their dogs, but overall it was deserted. I haven't seen it like that since the summer we were all partying in Northport until the wee hours and I was sneaking back home before my parents noticed. I ran down to the Huntington Y, doubled back and went down near the hospital, and then returned to 25A for the return run.

Nothing sucks more than the return run. I prefer to run loops that don't take me back along the same route. This way I don't fully understand how much farther I need to go. I made it back to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in one piece and attempted to cut through its parking lot to avoid fighting traffic for running space. Unfortunately this took me up a massive hill with no end in sight. I doubled back and saw an entrance to a Stillwell Trail. I heard cars so I decided to run on that, realized I could see a road through the trees, and bushwacked my way down the hill. Obviously this wasn't the road I wanted, and I almost got hit by another car trotting back to 25A. Sheesh. And I had only ran thirteen miles by this point.

I turned my Nike+ GPS on at Yellow Cote Road, so I promised myself that I would keep going until I saw the East Woods sign and figure out how much farther I needed to run. My GPS clocked in at 12.58 miles, so I figured if I could make it to 13.5 miles I would be golden (13.5 + 2.5 = 16). I chose Sugar Toms Lane as my next goal, and chanted Sugar Toms to myself to keep going. I was in serious pain for a while, but then my legs seemed to lighten. My stride had gotten much shorter, but my turnover was pretty good. My GPS said 14 miles when I stopped it at Sugar Toms and I walked the rest of the way back.

In the future, I am going to walk a half-mile before I start running. This will 1. give me a chance to warm-up, 2. remind me to start the dang GPS, and 3. allow me to cool down and pick up a cold beverage to drink on the way home. I killed a 1.5 litre bottle of water by mile 9. Not cool. Does anyone have any suggestions on staying hydrated during a long run? Does anyone else get that thirsty?