The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-437 – Rickey Gates – Across America  (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4437.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Intro: Hello and welcome to episode 4-437 of the RunRunLive podcast.  Today’s theme is journeys.  I connected with Rickey Gates and we have an interesting discussion around his journeys, particularly his 2016 run across America.  This particular journey wasn’t about getting the miles in per se, it was about discovering the heart of the country and finding himself.  And that’s the gift that we get from our endurance sports practices.  Every time we lace up the shoes and leave the house it’s a microcosm of the great journey.  It’s a small version of that unsettled quest we homo sapiens have always had, not only to find what’s on the other side of the next hill but what’s on the other side of our known limits.  In section one I talk about the nuances of doing tempo training in the trails and in section two I wrote another installment of the old man apocalypse story, because Tim asked me to.  This one is going to be the first part of a 3-parter.  I’ve had a decent couple weeks of training.  We got through the hot part of the summer up here and now we are rapidly approaching autumn and fall.  After we last spoke I spent a weekend down at my house on Cape Cod.  I had a big weekend in my training.  Friday night I had a long tempo run and by the time I got the podcast out and drove down it was late afternoon.  I did not feel like going out for a hard, hot, long workout.  I was mad because I packed up my water back pack and my bottle then forgot to put it in the truck in my haste.  It’s so hot and humid and dry on the Cape, with way less tree cover, that you really need a good hydration option. I grabbed a bottle of water and figured I’d give it a try and see how I felt.  I took Ollie and set off across the street to a state park that apparently no one really knows about.  It’s sectioned up by dirt roads and has a couple ponds.  I discovered it while mountain biking and was a bit astonished to realize there was a state park ½ mile from my door that I had been running by for years.  A dirt road on the Cape is a sand road.  The whole place is one big sand dune. I’ve discovered a loop that circumnavigates one of the ponds.  It’s conveniently about a mile from the house, then a short mile of single path through the scrub oak and blueberries around the pond.  For tempo I can just run the loop and when time is up I can jog home  And that’s what I did that Friday night.  Even though I felt shitty and discombobulated going in I felt pretty strong once I warmed up.  Ollie and I got into a rhythm and ran the workout with a reasonable amount of aplomb.  The next day, Saturday, I had a 3-hour bike ride on the schedule and I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do that with my water pack.  I found a random tradeshow backpack in my truck and I loaded that up with a few bottles of water and some food. I made it all the way from Harwich up the rail trail to the end at the beach in Wellfleet  turned around and came back.  There were a lot of people out on the trail.  I talked to some people wearing PanMass Challenge shirts and apparently that was a virtual event this year as well.  It was Sunday that really had me worried.  It was going to be the hottest day and I had a 3-hour run on the schedule.  The only way I could figure out how to do it safely was to go early and do 3 1-hour out and backs.  I started the first leg around 7:00 AM and headed on the roads over to the rail trail east.  Even at that time of day it was hot in the full sun on the bike trail.  There weren’t many people out yet, mostly serious bikers getting their workouts in before the crowds showed up.  By the time I got back to the house I was soaked like I had been swimming and my single bottle was well-past empty.  But, it was a solid logistical plan.  I drank my fi