Bound to cover just a little more ground...

Friday night I made the decision not to run in the Towpath Marathon or 1/2 marathon.
I made the choice not to spend my money on a finisher medal. I chose a day of solitude in exchange for the time spent with all of my friends yesterday and friday.

I love the towpath. The course is beautiful. The Cuyahoga Valley fall display of change is amazing. One last long race for the year.
The reasons to run this race are countless. I had tapered and maintained a pre race diet all week just in case I wanted to race. Prepared for spontaneity, I sat this one out.

In my little apartment I have a pegboard that hangs above my bike. From the board hangs a collection of finisher medals and the two age group awards I won years back. Beneath my hanging trophies are my bike tools. Like bookends on both sides of my bike are small shelves with bike components, shoes, paddles, goggles, rags, lube for both my bike and myself, sunglasses, tubes, sunscreen, and so on.

The choice not to run a marathon today was a choice to add to the lower half of my pegboard. Had I run I would have spent $65 on entry. The medal would hang beside the others. Instead I spent my money on tools.

I am rebuilding my bike. I have a Giant OCR from 2001. The frame is lite and compact. The components reliable but old and heavy. I have decided to stick with the bike for Ironman.
However it's time for a make over. Time to lighten the load and prep my ride. So currently the bike is completely dismantled except for the bottom bracket. I borrowed a BB tool from Cain Park Cycles, but it didn't quite fit. So off to Bike Nashbar I go for a BBT and a chainwhip.

Anyhow, Sunday arrives and I am itching for a long run. So following a waisted 3-1/2 hours with the Browns, I fill my fuelbelt with some sports drink sample from Cliff, grab some Jelly Belly Sport Beans(time to experiment with new race food). Load an '85 Dead show my friend Jason just gave me onto a minidisc. Strap on my heart rate monitor. Pull on some shorts,socks, shoes, and a tshirt and wrap sunglasses around my face.
I headed over to my old playground at shaker lakes and doan brook for a 2hr run

The Grateful Dead shows make good training partners. My introduction to endurance sports was dancing allnight and playing hackysack at amphitheatres across the country.

The show for this run opened with "Dancing in the Streets", as my shoes hit the pavement on Lancashire.

Later in the run I found myself laughing outloud amongst a crowded trail as the audience chants "let Phil sing" for the bass player. The band gives in and Phil Lesh sings an awkward "Tom Thumb Blues" by Dylan. As I head off road late in the run, the drummers create a tribal beat taking me deeper into the woods off northpark.
When I emerge from the woods I am starting to feel the distance in my legs and the drummers have cleared out for an atonal non-rhythmic space jam. I am feeling tired and weary. The chill of sunset is moving in. Floating thru space and chaos I just want to be done with this run.... I eat the remainder of my Jelly Beans, Jerry plays a firmiliar theme and the band follows into a song called "The Wheel".

"Wheel is turning and you can't slow down
You can't let go and you can't hold on
You can't go back and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will

Won't you try just a little bit harder?
Couldn't you try just a little bit more?
Won't you try just a little bit harder?
Couldn't you try just a little bit more?

Round round run around
Gotta get back where you belong
Little bit harder, just a little bit more
Little bit farther than you than you've gone before

Small wheel turn by the fire and rod
Big wheel turn by the grace of God
Everytime that wheel turn round
bound to cover just a little more ground"

-Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter

My legs and resolve come together. My heart rate monitor begins screaming as the band launches into "Truckin".

The last mile my heart rate was pounding 25 BPM faster than it had for the previous 110 minutes. I fell a few minutes short of the 2hrs planned.

Was it the the jelly beans, the dead or both?.

I didn't run a marathon this weekend. I ran a dead show. Long Slow Distance. What a trip.

My marathon is 11 months from now..."Bound to cover just a little more ground".