Long Run Sunday

I have no idea how far I went since I'm not fancy enough to have a gps watch, but I was running for time which ended up to be about 2 hours and 30 minutes. 

I was actually semi nervous this morning about heading out on a long run solo. I mean, what if I get lost? What if I run out of water? Or spontaneously pass out?

Well I'm here to tell you, my faithful readers (aka my mom and sister) that I successfully managed a 2 hour and 30 minute run all on my own. To all those hard core runners out there, this may not sound like much, but to me this is, like, celebration material.

First of all, I didn't spend $40 dollars on an entry fee just so that I could have those trusty water stations and strangers cheering me on. And second of all I feel way more independent. I'm free!

That little waist pack of mine is a real gem. It held my phone (in case I did get lost, dehydrated or injured), a packet of gu, and a full bottle of water spiked with Gatorade AND it didn't chafe by back or waist or annoy the hell out of me like I thought it would. Thank you running engineers, you really came through with this one.


Also, here are some lessons I learned / things I should have thought about but didn't from going on a long run solo:

1) Wake up early because the sun only gets hotter as time goes on. 
I really tried to wake up early. I set my alarm for 6:30 but hit the snooze until around 7:40. Finally, I dragged myself out of bed, threw the dogs outside with food and water and hit the road but when I finished I wished I had started at 6:30 because the sun really wears on you.
2) Avoid the psych ward 
You'd think this would be common sense but I actually didn't even think about it until a crazy man walking down the side walk in front of me started yelling at me and waving the boom box he was carrying. After I got over the shock of it all I realized where I was. Yup, right outside of Griffin Memorial Mental Hospital.
3) Wear sunblock
This actually pertains to running in general for long periods of time, not just by yourself, however when I'm alone I forget all of the simple necessities. Needless to say, I got a little pink on my face.
4) Pick a nice, scenic part of town to run through (not by a psych ward)
Unfortunately for me I picked the WORST part of Norman to run around. Did I mention I passed a psych ward? Not only a psych ward, a Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and a grungy neighborhood with a homeless woman walking around. To be fair, I previously lived in that neighborhood (as part of the broke, college experience) so the area was familiar to me and it's not like Norman really has anywhere nice to run around, but still. Next time I should take the time to drive out to the nice neighborhoods with houses I can gawk at.
5) Make sure you have enough songs on your playlist to listen to
This isn't really that important to me since after about an hour my head kind of goes numb and I forget I'm even listening to music but I wanted to have 5 points since 4 seems inadequate. Plus, it is kind of annoying to realize that you're listening to the same songs over and over again.