20-Miler On The D&L Trail

Last Friday’s weather report was looking pretty nice. Since I also had off that day, I decided to do my long run that day instead of Sat or Sunday like I usually do. Saturday we were planning to head into Philly and Sunday was looking pretty crappy.
I decided to head up to Northampton and run the D&L trail where I will be doing my first marathon in a month. I was hoping to get in 20 miles today, but depending on how my IT Band felt it may be less. The weather did not disappoint. It was a gorgeous day and I hit the trailhead around 11AM. The small parking area was packed, but I managed to fit the (Honda)Fit into the last little opening in the tiny parking lot. I donned my fuelbelt and started turning the legs over.
As usual, I realized I needed to take a leak about a quarter mile down the trail at the first yellow gate. I headed over to the bank that overlooks the river and unfortunately there was a fisherman right below. I headed down further to a tree and emptied the tank. I was off again. Things were feeling pretty good as I made my way down the trail. Somewhere around 3 miles I realized I lost my one water bottle out of my fuelbelt. I had one bottle in my hand holster, but that would not be enough to sustain me for 17 more miles. I started heading back and found the bottle laying on the trail about a quarter mile back. This was going to throw my hole plan of running upriver 10 miles and back 10. So now it would be up 11 and back 9?
There was quite a few people on the trail that day. I almost tripped over a Garmin GPS along the way. I wasn’t sure what to do with it so I just moved it closer to the side of the trail so no one would run over it. Further down a older guy on a bike passed me and I saw him talking to 2 other bikers coming towards me. It looked as if they were asking him if they had seen something so I asked them if they lost a GPS when they came by. They said “No, but that guy up there did.” Ok, so why didn’t he ask me? Obviously I would have more chance of seeing something like that then someone on a bike. I shouted up to him and told him where I had seen it.
I eventually reached the town of Slatington and there was a nice little parking area and a rest station from what was once the railroad station. I spotted a Sunoco mini-mart across the street, so I decided to get some water and a snack. I had been drinking my Skratch Labs hydration mix which is great, but it leaves a funky taste in my mouth after awhile. It is good to wash it out with some plain old water. I also got a back of Snyder’s pretzels which I thought would be some quick carbs and salt. I ended up dumping most of the pretzels since they were a bit tough to eat quickly with a dry mouth.
I started back down the trail heading towards the start. My IT Band started tightening up a bit, so I started stretching it out every mile or so. It still was tolerable most of the way back. The run was quite breathtaking. The yellow leaves were slowing blowing off the trees and it made it rather surreal at times. I just love the Fall season. Cooler temps and foliage.
I finally reached where I knew I had a mile to go and my watch was reading 18 miles. I really wanted to get 20, so I dropped off my water bottle and turned around to run back upriver another half mile so I could tack on another mile. That is a tough thing to do when you are so close to the end. Hopefully it will build some mental toughness though. Those last couple miles really started to play on me mentally. My feet were sore and my knee & IT Band were screaming for mercy. I kept thinking “could I really do another 6.2 miles yet??” I was starting to doubt it very much. What about doing this after a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike? Yikes! Well I got another 9 or so months to think about that one, so I better just concentrate on the 26.2 miles first.
I got back to the car intact and the totally empty parking lot 3:20 later. No records broken there. I downed a banana and some water and then headed home. It was a nice day and a gorgeous run. Next week will be a recovery week, so I will probably only do 12-14 miles for my long run. The week after that I am going to shoot for 22-23 miles though and then it will be taper time. Wow how time flies!