My mom showing off her name rabbit shorts!
This Week's Stats
- 80 Miles
- 12M MLR
- 15.5M with 3 x (4min-3min-2min-1min) with 90s jog rest (614 pace for 8.34M)
- 12.4M MLR
- 22M long run with 10M at 605 average
- 0 days off
- 1 Total Eclipse
- 1 rock climbing session
- 5 days in Southern Illinois
I was feeling so confident about last’s week high mileage that I just had to shoot for more this week. And I came away so proud of myself. Let’s set the stage. I was in Carbondale, where there’s no one left to run with. You should all know by now that I’m a total wimp when it comes to running alone. Also, the weather isn’t particularly the best for training for a marathon – with temps soaring above 100 and the humidity at 90%. Honestly, I’m shaking my head in disbelief at my own mental tenacity.
- Reason #1: I did almost 40 miles in 3 days, all by my lonesome.
- Reason #2: As part of #1, I did a workout all by myself on the country roads in my hometown. And, I didn’t run slow; I actually hit the paces!
- Reason #3: All my family members were sleeping in while I had to wake up early to get the run in before I had meetings.
Yet, after laying all these reasons out, I realize now that I found the real answer as to why I was able to run so strong: because I saw my first total solar eclipse! The whole point of this trip to Illinois was to enjoy a view of the total solar eclipse from the comfort of my childhood home. Nature, of course, did not disappoint…and, for that matter, neither did my mom’s cooking! As the moon’s shadow began to cast its darkness over the sun, I wandered back and forth from our kitchen to our field. This ensured that I could both eat and watch the partial eclipse move towards totality.
In the moment that the sun was completely blocked by the sun, everyone shouted to “remove your glasses.” I gazed up towards the sun, and then twirled slowly around, marveling in the 360 views of a sunset. For 2 minutes and 42 seconds, I listened as my family members and friends all gasped, cried out repeatedly “oh my god” and snapped photos of the phenomenon. Probably the best part for me was absorbing the look of pure joy on my brother’s face:
We all left exulted, in awe of what we had just experienced, each wishing it could have lasted at least ten more minutes.
Hopefully now you can understand how this eclipse inspired me to have such a great week of running, despite all of the factors going against me. It was just aligned in the universe.