Confessions of an all Night Runner

Well this weekend has been a weekend of firsts for me (in running that is). I began my saturday with a little jog around an 8 mile block with some pretty decent hills. That was my first time to run over 6 miles at one time and also my first time to run from one city to another.
I met friend in seattle at his condo for a Mariners game (they lost of course) and ran from his condo downhill to Safeco Field 2 miles away. That only left one more run for the day for me. Uphill 2 miles back to his condo for a BBQ.
I was pretty sure I had the next few days off of running. But, as you can see from above I was very wrong indeed. Krista (my brothers wife) is out of town for a couple of weeks so Josh (my brother) came over and we played some Tiger Woods on the 360 and then decided to go for a little stroll at 2:30 am.
Long story much longer now. We ran from my house uphill on redmond way into downtown kirkland which is about 3 miles. Then we ran south towards bellevue for about 3 miles and then headed east for awhile following the surface streets next to highway 520. Then we made the long trek back up 148th towards our apartment to make the 12 mile block. Then because we were so sleep deprived and delusional we decided to make it a half marathon and pass up our apartment and continue running. We ended somewhere in Redmond at 4 something o’clock in the morning.
We ran for 2 hours 8 minutes 58 seconds. 13.15 miles continuously without ever stopping to walk or rest. This was definitely a first for both Josh and I. We had some amazingly long uphill battles (pun intended) but we conquered them all and had an overall average pace of 9:40 per mile. A pretty good pace for first time half marathoners.
Some may say that we are insane or crazy. I know one thing for sure. The garbage truck man that passed us twice at 3 am I’m sure thinks that we are nuts.
If you think that we got this idea to run late at right from our own creative heads then I thank you. It is a compliment that you would think we actually come up with these crazy things ourselves. But I must admit that I was inspired by a recent book that I read. Even if you aren’t a runner and possibly want to hurl at the thought of running even 1 mile without stopping, you can be inspired by people like this.

- Ultra Marathon Man - confessions of an all night runner
Dean Karnazes

This book reminded me that I don’t have much to complain about when I’m running and my side hurts, or my feet feel heavy and tired. I won’t spoil the story but lets just say that the man has run the Hood to Coast relay and he was the only person on his team. He ran all 197 miles straight and ate while running. And you thought I was crazy for running 13.15 miles in the middle of the night?

I have only just begun!