I ran 27km yesterday.  27km is a really long run.  Really, really long.  Kind of stupid long.  I know there is a lot of research out there that says humans are made to run.  But it still begs the question, are we made to run 27km???  I remain unconvinced.

When I managed to stagger up my driveway, stumble through the door and quickly lay on the ground with my legs up the wall, I had time to plan for Around the Bay.  Let’s just say I am changing my approach.

I will instead be running the lesser known Around the Bay 20km race.  I hear it is pretty flat and there will be lots of people with me on the course.  My goal will be to run a steady but somewhat slow race.  When I am done I will congratulate myself on a good 20k training run.  Then I will head for my car.  Of course my car will be 10km away, apparently over a bunch of hills.  But that is o.k. because I won’t really be in a rush.  In fact, I may even throw my Garmin in my pocket.  After all, if I go somewhere, I don’t time myself to see how long it takes me to get to my car in the parking lot, why should this be different?

When I have finished my 10k path back to my car some very nice strangers will give me a medal and some food just for – you guessed it – making it back to the general vicinity of my car.  At that point I might find a place to simply lay down and contemplate the final steps to the parking lot.  There will probably be some cursing that the parking lot isn’t closer to where I am laying down.  There is a chance I will keep laying there until someone – a cranky janitor or understanding security guard perhaps – tells me to get off the floor and go home.  I will then make my final victory lap to the car, head back to Ottawa and congratulate myself for not only running 20km, but successfully making it back to my car…however long that takes!