Today was my long run.
I have made it a ritual to do them on the beach that is within 10 miles of my home.
I have been running for 8 years now and have never ran on the beach until this year! What was I thinking? The Beach is a perfect place for a long run.
First, I feel it is safe. There are not many opportunities to attacked not the beach: too many people and no vehicles to be dragged into. (which makes me point out that no one honks at you - can I hear an amen!) Secondly, you can run straight for 100 miles if you wanted to! Thirdly, the terrain is constantly changing which gives you challenges each time you run, which is very practical for a racer to learn to adapt to variables in a race. Lastly, it's just sooooo beautiful!
Two weeks ago I had a fantastic long run - 11 miles! So I hit it today looking for a good 10 so I can do a 12 miles two weeks before the race.
However, when I stepped on the beach it was obvious it had rained the night before. All the sand, from the shore to the dunes, was wet. That means there aren't any areas that are solid down at the walking/running line of the shore. To be more specific that means that it's soft and your shoe sinks into the sand. This takes a lot more effort and strain on the muscles to run. It's almost like resistance training!
Adding to that was the - what I call - beach poop. I know that's gross but it literally looks like huge piles of it. It's wet washed up wood/sponge/coral like stuff - brown and lots of it and all of it right at the line of running. It's like the beach had a big bowel movement the night before - disgusting! In addition, the waves had eroded the shore area, making the run area horizontally slanted and hilly. This made me run with one leg bent and the other straight and go up and down to the point it made me nauseous!
To add insult to what I felt like injury- the time had changed. Where before the time change my early morning run had the sun just rising and low enough to hit the buildings on the beach to cause a shadow for 3/4 of the run, now I had full sun the entire run.
As you can tell - I was whining and complaining all the way for the first two miles. I had urges to call out to other runners, "this sucks right?!" I was sure they were thinking the same thing. I even stopped running to take some pictures of the things that were irking me.
That's when I noticed a man with his arms out trying to give a hug to a sea gull. It took me a minute to see he was just trying to catch it - which is still strange. By the time I walked up - yes walked - to him I saw why. The sea gull had a large hook with fishing line and a very large lure on the end dragging it. The woman with the man kneeled down and cut the line and then removed the hook.
As a teacher/preacher I immediately saw my lesson/sermon for the day. When something is entangled in something - cut it loose. I knew what my hook and line was - my pathetic complaining and letting my negativity talk me out of a good nice long run.
As the freed seagull was let go he immediately took flight.
I think you get it. Cut the things that keep you from flying loose - even if it's you.
That's exactly what I did - and I ran!
9.25 miles
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