This wasn’t where I was planning to be running on 12/4/21, but it is where I needed to be. Today was the Millinocket Half Marathon and Marathon that I had registered for. However, with the surge of COVID-19 cases happening in Maine, I decided before Thanksgiving to bow out. I saw the trends and since then, the numbers have only gone up — significantly. So, for my individual circumstances, it turned out to be the correct choice.

I did get to see how others in the Central Maine Striders did on a very tough course that was pretty chilly, had plenty of ice and crap on the Golden Road from their race reports. So, congratulations to Ron, Ryan, Julie, and everyone else who ran Millinocket.

Instead, I drove up to Watervillle and did 11.0 miles (ca. 18 km).

Brrr — That 21*F starting out into a gentle breeze had me questioning my sanity and thinking that this could be one of those where I will be smart, turn around, go home and play on the elliptical. That really would have been smarter. *

Oh well, I’m not one for being smarter, so I kept going while thinking where the point would be having the wind more at my back. I told myself that I was dressed properly, so I knew I wasn’t going to freeze or anything, just those first few miles took longer to warm up than I wanted. 

When I got over on County Road, I worked adding in some uphill training video advice that I watched last night. It helped remind me to keep better form, i.e., not leaning at the waist or looking at my feet when going uphill. Both things I tend to do when I am not paying attention. That get into an uphill slog, versus running up the hills.

During the downhill sections, I purposely slowed down to keep this an easy run. 

The legs felt fine, but at about mile 7.0 I did wish I had one of my Honey Stinger gels with me, I could feel I needed one and some water to wash it down. However, when I left the house, I decided not to bring the water or Honey Stingers. There weren’t many choices, other than to keep on going, but for anything longer than this, I have a feeling that a Honey Stinger at about mile 7.0 would be a great idea.

Around mile 8.0 the bottom of my feet started to bother and continued to be an issue the rest of the run. I am fairly sure it is a kind of metasarglia (sp), but there isn’t a lot that I can do about it. After I finish running, it goes away in about 15 minutes and I don’t feel any after-effects.

I have a feeling that this will be my limiting factor when it comes to racing a half and running a marathon. This happens about this point on runs or earlier in other shoes and while I can keep going it does become a question of how much I can endure the discomfort. 

Even so, I still ran well otherwise. 

When I finished I was going to get some photos, but my phone had run out of juice, which sucked, and no, I wasn’t listening to music. It had 87% when I started, so it didn’t do so well in the cold and if I had needed it. My iPhone SE would have been useless, so it is good to know, and maybe a new one is needed – since this is an old 2016 iPhone SE. 

Oh well, just another thing to think about when it comes to running because I do love having it with me for both photos and safety reasons.

I have a feeling that this will be a long Winter and that training will be harder than it has been in the past since I am doing the Runner’s Connect Half Marathon training plan. Now, if COVID-19 would calm down, so I could get back to the gym, it sure would be nice.