A Little Flat?

I went on my long run yesterday with Mike. We met at his place and were on the road by just before 6AM. IT was cool so we had the tights on and it was snowing. We were both hoping we were done with snow here but not the case. It is Wisconsin so we could have snow as late a May.

We had decided to run the usual looper route with the extended 3 miles that added some major hills. We both found one of the big and steep hills bothersome. Mike's knee bothered him by the top and because I had to run on my toes up the hill being so steep, my ankle was sore. We did keep up an OK pace for the run. We hit the half marathon mark in 1:59:40, a full 2:20 ahead of what I went through the half in at Albany.

Mike only ran 14 miles so he cut off and went home but I wanted to keep going a few more miles so I trudged along. About a mile later I started to tighten up. I had not taken my usual salt packet before or during the run but did drink water throughout the run. My left foot began to stiffen right in the arch. By 16.5 miles, I needed to stop and stretch it on the curb. Then in the last 3/4 of a mile, my left leg began tightening up. It thankfully did not cramp up. I did finish the 17 1/2 miles with an average pace of 9:08 so that was good.

While running the final few meters of the run, I noticed the back tire of my car was almost flat. It was not a full flat so luckily Mike had an air compressor and we were able to fill it up. We did hear the high pitched sound of the air seeping out though. I was able to quickly drive back to close to home and take it to Firestone for new tires. I needed new ones anyways so this wasn't that big of a deal. The big deal was the $500 I dished for them. At least it comes with lifetime tire rotation.

The run ended a little flat and the tire was a little flat. I am now pumped back up and ready to keep it going. The weather is looking good so far for a marathon this Saturday, at least for a training run marathon. Am I the only one who runs marathons occasionally as training runs?