the extra mile (or where the sidewalk ends)
I ran 8 miles on Sunday. That is officially the farthest I have ever run. I set out with the plan to run 4 miles down the street, then 4 miles back on the other side. If you have ever wondered where the sidewalk ends, it is 3 miles down the road. In Burbank. I decided that tripping over a tree root and twisting my ankle 4 miles from home would be both predictable and inconvenient, so I veered off course and headed to points unknown. As it turns out, 3 miles is a lot farther than I thought. Also, both Glendale and Burbank have a ridiculous number of stores that exist simply to refill 5-gallon bottles of purified water. With men who sit on the stoop, chain smoking. At least they won’t get cancer from their water.
At 4 miles, disaster struck. My iPod shuffle died. In the middle of an Avril Lavigne song. And everyone knows if you turn off an Avril Lavigne song before it’s over, it will be stuck in your head for days. Damn you, Avril.
I am not at all opposed to running without music. The Portland Half Marathon is an MP3 friendly event. However, not all races are, and I’d rather not have to rely on my playlist to get me through. I just hadn’t planned on quitting cold turkey. Faced with the daunting prospect of 4 silent miles, I stopped to take out my earbuds and eat some Sport Beans before I soldiered on.
When I started running again, the experience was a little surreal. My runs sound like Queen, and Britney Spears, and Cake. And yes, occasionally Ke$ha. I had assumed that running without music would be quiet and boring. But my neighborhood is far from quiet at 8pm. This run sounded like traffic on the 134, and wind, and people making dinner, and TV, and crickets, and Bollywood musical numbers. I also heard my own breathing, which was not nearly as ragged as I expected it to be. In those 4 miles, I found out that I can enjoy running without drowning out all ambient noise.
Additionally, I found out the sidewalk also ends abruptly 3 miles back down Glenoaks Boulevard. Right by a shop where you can refill your 5-gallon water bottle.