Long Bridge
On Saturday I ran 10 miles. I ran over (and back) the Garcon Point Bridge, which is close to my home.
Problems
There’s an 4.8 mile run/walk event on this bridge in October; I’ve never participated in this event. You can read about it here if you want. This is a toll bridge that cost $4.75 to cross in a car, so the traffic is very light. Although it’s a two lane bridge, it’s been built to be expandable to 3+ lanes, which means there’s lots of room on the berm. I actually start down the road a bit, run across the bridge (and even past the toll booth a bit if I want), so this has served as a nice long run location in the past. Except for today…
- Leg Cramp – I got a sudden leg cramp on Friday at work while sitting down, of all things. I ran a couple easy miles on Friday in spite of this. This was an intense cramp that lingers; if you’ve had these, you know what I’m talking about.
- Windy – it’s usually always windy here, and on many days it’s very windy. At this location, the prevailing winds are usually either in your face or at your back. On Saturday it wasn’t just a regular old wind, it did something like this to me:
When I woke up Saturday morning, my thigh was still sore, but I thought it would loosen up when I started running. While running I noticed that nice boost I was getting from the wind at my back, so I tried to hold back some extra energy for the return trip, and with my thigh still hurting, I knew I’d need all the help I could get. I should have turned around much, much earlier, but I didn’t.
It Hit Me
As soon as RunKeeper told me I hit the 5.0 mile mark, I hit the brakes and did a u-turn. Then it hit me full-on in the mouth:
Except instead of just one hit and then they blow the whistle, it was a persistent, painful reminder that I have 5 more miles to go.
Let me tell you that I dislike hate to stop while running. For the last 5 miles of this run, I run-walked. I was being sand-blasted through my (substantially hairy) legs; I had a wind-burn on my face when I returned home. It was painful, terrible, awful. I don’t know when or If I’ll run that bridge again.
