5.72 miles, 39:14
6×1200m today. It was really 6 and 1/2 since I added a sprint to the Ferry building against my bladder. My bladder is a tough opponent but, luckily I won. It is a bad idea to go into the Ferry building while running in the morning. All of the smells emanating from the bakeries in the mall entice one to stay and down a few large baked delights. Unfortunately, I don’t run with any money on my person.
My knees are still a little creaky from Sunday’s run but, other than being stiff I’m feeling okay. Space asked me to run the Relay on the 16th and while it is intriguing, I’m not sure I’m up for hours and hours in a van full of sweaty men. I got plenty of that in private school traveling to meets on the cross-country team. It sounds a little too rigorous to be doing two weeks before a marathon.
Speaking of very long races over two days, we watched “Running on the Sun” about the Badwater 135 last night which was in inspirational, amazing, and terrifying. I’d first read about this event via Dean Karnazes’s “Ultramarathon Man” but, what I had imagined and what I saw were a bit different. Karnazes did a better job than the movie of describing the intense heat that the runners have to endure while ascending from Death Valley up to Mt. Whitney. But, the movie showed the anguish on the faces, and the feet, of the 40 runners who set out in 1999.
Particularly inspiring was the group of marines who helped a women from the UK who had only one person as her support crew. Their runner had come up against some trouble when his body would not keep fluids down and after a long struggle he had to drop out. But rather than go home he and his crew stuck around to become the support crew for another runner. Without them it is quite possible that this women would not have finished. It was an excellent illustration of compassion in a movie filled with heart warming moments. The fact that anyone can complete this race is remarkable and the fact that all walks of life, those with artificial limbs, those who are 68, some who are running it for the fifth straight time and some for the first, is astounding. It is a humbling story and the movie is well worth seeking out.