Pain and pushing through

Eleven miles is a long damned way to run and my body - wobbly bits and all - is not equipped to handle that kind of distance. But I persevered with my run last Saturday and hit a new personal best. I wanted to see if it was possible to go further than my previous best of ten miles, and I'm delighted with the result.

Eleven laps on the inside circuit - half a marathon in two hours is within reach!

The further I run, the more new pains and aches my body starts to experience. These aren't the usual muscular aches, like back when I first started and my legs protested at being used so vigorously. These are uncomfortable new irritations and agonies I've never experienced before. For instance, after around four miles my feet start to tingle. It feels like pins and needles in the soles of my feet. This sensation doesn't travel any higher than my ankles, and fades away after the fifth mile or so - thankfully! - but it's really distracting while it lasts. Maybe I need better footwear.


After that, there's pain in the lungs from trying to take even, deep, steady breaths under such strenuous circumstances. Breathing, I've learned, is the key to almost every exercise and controlling your lungs is a vital part of running long distance. You don't want to start gasping or hyperventilating. Bad enough you hear yourself wheezing like a squashed otter in the silence between songs, no need to make that awkwardness any worse.


And don't forget about losing all sensation in your fingertips! At the beginning of the run, my hands were too hot. I cussed myself for not wearing the fingerless gloves instead, but persevered anyway. After the hallway point, I lost most of the feeling in my fingers. By the end, it hurt to unclench my fists. And my fingers were freezing. Still not sure what the cause was - the falling temperature; the wind resistance; or aliens.

Any excuse to post this image.

Surprisingly, I don't get pain in the one place you might expect me to feel it. My leg muscles were actually fine. Once you're going and locked into a good pace, it's really hard to stop. Your legs keep moving almost on their own accord. I let myself slow to a fast walk around three or four times while running those laps. It didn't seem to have any negative impacts on me (apart from protests in my thigh muscles when trying to get started again).


The thing that shocked me was the way my body trembled all over once I had finished. After I had stretched and had a protein shake and the adrenaline had worn off, my entire body started to shake and tremble uncontrollably. It was like climbing out of an icy lake and standing on the shore in a freezing wind. My fingers shook. Teeth chattered. It was a bizarre feeling. I wasn't cold, but I couldn't stop. That must be what exhaustion feels like.


The more running I do, the better I feel. It's a strange parallel. When I first started, my legs would barely hold while showering afterward. Now I can run eleven miles, stretch out the cramps, and be surprised by the full-body shuddering I experience later. I'm getting a little better at this, day by day.