Conversations With Myself During a 20 Mile Run, As Told in 3 Acts

Act 1
I: Good morning!
Myself: Bite me.
I: Nice, I see we have a long day ahead of us. What's up your butt?
Myself: I feel like I'm going to hurl, I forgot to charge my Garmin last night and I hit and killed a raccoon on my way to the stupid park this morning.
I: I'm so sorry you've had a rough start to the morning. Let's get our legs moving and all will be better in no time!
Myself: Whatever.

Act 2

Myself: I feel like I'm going to hurl.
I: Let's try and get your mind off it. Let's sing a song.
Myself: Dork.
I: How about some....Timbaland. You like him, right? "If you see us in the club...we'll be something something...if you see us on the floor we'll be rockin' something something. We ain't here to somthing...giveittomegiveittome"
Myself: Shut up! You don't even know the words!
I: Sing along! It's fun. Who cares if people are staring??
Myself: I seriously have to puke...

~Intermission~

barfbarfbarfbarfbarfbarfbarfbarfbarf

Act Three:

I: Well, that was fun
Myself: Go to hell
I: C'mon. We've gotten it out of our system now. Let's make the most of the miles we have left and the beautiful day.
Myself: Whatever.
I: Listen hear you little pissant! I'm tired of listening to your whiny butt complain and complain and 'Oh I want to stop, I can't do this,' blah blah blah. Pick you feet up off the ground and MOVE you MAGGOT. Did you hear me? I said MOVE!
Myself: Uh....
I: This is the last long run we have to do. This is it! The last one. Are you going to sit there in your own puddle of self-pitying nonsense and make this LAST and most important run, the one you've been building up to for ONE YEAR, a total bust? Get off your sorry ass and MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!
Myself: Ok ok! Sheesh. Someone's in a bad mood.

20 miles: 4hrs 14 minutes, including the, uh, intermission.

Tenner

Can you believe it? I've been anticipating the Wednesday 10 Miler since June!

Despite the RIDICULOUS humidity, I had an awesome run tonight. My goal was to run the first two miles easy as a warm up and then see if I could hold the remaining 8 at MP. I was worried when I checked the Garmin at mile 1 and it read 10:39. Ooops. So much for easy! (By the way, I know 10:39 isn't exactly flying but my goal pace for this marathon is 10:50 so I was way too fast this first mile.)

Fully expecting to crash by the time I got to 5, I tried to pull back a little bit. Mile 2, 10:45. Alrighty then. So much for a nice easy warm up.

Shockingly enough, the crash never came and I was able to hold that pace the full 10 miles. I finished the run SOAKING from head to toe and smiling from ear to ear. I live for runs like this. The runs that make all the hard days seem worth it. The runs that leave you feeling strong and empowered at the end instead of totally spent and frustrated. The runs where everything goes as planned and you actually surprise yourself with what you're able to do.

The Grinch Who Stole Fall

92F today. 92F tomorrow. What gives? For the last 3 weeks, I've gone out every day and ran in this heat and I've said to myself "Self, this is the last time you have to run in this heat. Surely Fall is just around the corner."

Surely...?

Twelve.

Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes. The birthday run wasn't great but the rest of the day was. I ate like a horse and spent time with friends and family. I also took the week off work so I've been doing a whole lotta nuthin' and it feels marvelous. And, aside the fact that my tits are in my shoes, I feel much better at 28 than I ever did at 21. Here's to my late 20's!

I had a cut back week this week so I 'only' ran 12 miles this morning. Dad ran the first 9 with me and when he finished I tried to pick up the pace a bit and finish at MP. However, I had more in the tank than I realized and ended up running those last 3 miles about 20-25 seconds faster than MP. This never happens so I was high as a kite when I finished. Why can't the marathon be 12 miles, huh?

Anyway, I'm going to bore you with the splits (oh, and it was already 75F and 79% humidity when we started, joy)

mile 1: 11.20
mile 2: 11.15
mile 3: 11.18
mile 4: 11.43 (water)
mile 5: 11.20
mile 6: 12.08 (gel, potty break) ug. I've got to tinker with this. My breakfast the last 2 weeks has been catching up with me. Not fun!
mile 7: 11.11
mile 8: 10.59
mile 9: 11.01
mile 10: 10.35
mile 11: 10.33
mile 12: 10.33

Yep. I'm loving miles 10, 11 and 12. And dad even finished faster than he started which is awesome, although a little birdy told me he's hurting pretty bad now, a few hours later. Ice bath! Ice bath! Ice bath!

So, I'm feeling pretty good about this whole marathon thing. One last week of proper training, capped off with my final long run of 20 miles, then 3 weeks of taper. I'm already anticipating the madness so I apologize in advance if I go a little mental.

The Big 2-8!

No, not 28 miles (I wish)! 28 years of wandering around on this planet. That's right, it's my birthday. My present to myself every year is the day off from work, or in this case, 3 days. No one should have to work on their birthday. When I'm ruler of the Earth, birthdays will be akin to holidays. Sleep in, have pancakes for breakfast, watch soaps or football all day, let your friends buy you presents and tell you how marvelous you are. None of this work silliness!

Today I run 9 miles. I'll leave the Garmin on the kitchen table and run for the sake of running. I'll run to feel my 28 year old feet push my body across this earth. I'll run to feel the sweet September air fill my lungs. I'll run to feel my heart beat in my chest for the 1,178,125,312th time. I'll run in celebration of all the blessings I've had and those to still look forward to.



Today, I run 9 miles because I can.

Guess What?

I feel pretty great. Not sure why I'm not cramped up and hobbling around today, perhaps I have gained some fitness after all. Running (and walking) for 4 hours yesterday didn't kill me and I'm no worse off today than I was after any of my other long runs. And I got a HUGE kick out of seeing people's faces this morning at church when they asked me how far I went yesterday. I wish I bottle that expression, "20 miles??"

For some reason, 20 always gets more of a reaction than the actual marathon itself which is a whopping 6.2 miles longer. Maybe because 20 is a nice round number that's easily pictured. What is 26.2? It's odd, weird, uneven, how far is that? Everyone knows about how far 20 miles is. "Why, you could run to Circleville!"

Lastly, I stole this idea for my shoes from the Runner's World forums. I thought it would be a great motivator when I'm doubled over in pain somewhere around mile 22, wanting to quit. I'll look down, see this and press on. I was also thinking about drawing wings on my heals! I'm so cheesy :)

The Big 2-0

Hal told me to run 19 miles this morning. But did I listen? Nooooooooo!

The weather was cool, my legs felt great. I told myself that if I felt horrible at 19, I'd stop, no bones. But if I got to 19 and I felt like I had one more mile in me, I was going to go for it. More for the psychological benifit than anything else.

When I got to mile 15 and I wasn't dead, I knew I was going to go for 20. The last 5 miles were anything but pretty but it was too late...I already had my heart set on 20. There was more walking than I would have liked but in the end, I got it done in 3:59:33, slower than I would have liked but I'll take it. 20 miles is 20 miles after all and that's what I did today.

Took the planned marathon outfit for the run and I think my shirt is too big. =(

FUEL

Provided I don't slag off and I complete my 19 miler on Saturday morning as planned, I will reach 37 miles for the week. Holy moly. No wonder I eat like a freaking horse. I eat everything placed in front of me and then I ask for more. Like a Hobbit, I have breakfast, then I have Second Breakfast. Lunch, then Second Lunch. I'm not too hungry at the end of the day so after my run, I'll usually have a banana and then maybe a bowl of soup. But for the most part, I'm starving all the time. And when I finally do eat after going a whole 20 minutes or so of not eating, whatever it is tastes soooo gooooodddd.

For example, I had a chicken sandwich for lunch, plain old chicken, some lettuce, a little mayo...nothing out of the ordinary, right? So how's come I scarfed that thing down like I hadn't seen food in days, then went on to rave to everyone I saw about how good it was?? It wasn't that spectacular, was it? Half an hour later, I'm back down at the cafeteria sniffing around for another one!

I've been a human garbage disposal now for about 3 weeks coinciding with the increase in mileage. It makes sense that I would need to eat more to keep up, but is this normal? I haven't gained any weight but I'm worried I will if I keep walking around "famished" all the time and make poor food choices. I have absolutely no idea how many calories I'm ingesting, honestly, they're chewed up and in my tummy before I can count them.

It just seems so totally bizarre to me, that I can eat as much as I do and not gain weight. And yes, I realize it's a balancing act (calories in vs calories out) but I still have that overweight, out of shape mentality that was ME for so many years. Just because the weight is gone, doesn't mean I don't still feel like that insecure fat girl. One thing that has changed, though, I don't eat for comfort anymore, I eat for FUEL.

I'm learning about so much more than running while training for this marathon.

Lesson learned

I'm not cutting myself any slack for Saturday's poor performance. Yes, my back hurt but more than anything I just didn't want to be out there. 13 miles is something I've done a few times now so I didn't have the thrill of a new PR somewhere near the end of my run. I didn't have much motivation for this run and it felt more like a chore than anything else. Just puttin' in the miles. The heat and humidity were a killer and *ahem* oh yeah, the beers. In my defense I only had 2 and it was my friend's 30th birthday. On the other hand, I know better than to think that wouldn't be a factor in the morning.

So. Lesson learned. Respect the long run, you idiot!

The good news is that I think my back problem is mostly gone. I spent most of Saturday icing and doing some ibuprofen therapy. I ended up at my yoga class last night and a good stretch did wonders.

The other good news is that the forecast for next Saturday, aka The 19 Miler, is a high of only 64F, low humidity and plenty of sun. I think I'm looking at a nice, cool 49F at my start time of 6:45. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm really looking forward to 19!

And lastly, people keep asking how long it is until my marathon. I throw up a little in my mouth after I said "39 days" today. GULP! I remember when that countdown clock said 312 days. Man. Time goes fast when you're running!

Is it too soon to start picking out an outfit?

How a planned 13 mile run turned in to an actual 7

Gather 'round fellow runners. I want to tell you a story.

Our runner friend Kate has gone and got herself injured because she is a stupid silly girl. How did she do this? you may be wondering. Well...lets just say that she woke up Friday morning with a muscle pull in her lower back. Where it came from, no one knows but she apparently slept pretty rough that night. And lets just also say that instead of doing anything about it, she went out for her intended long run of 13 miles this morning as usual. And imagine, if you will, a runner who had not put much time and thought into preparing for this run, seeing as how it was "only" 13 miles she had to do that day.

Feeling over confident, she stayed up too late with friends the night before, drinking a few beers instead of water so the next morning instead of being properly hydrated and fueled, she was dehydrated with a tad of a hangover stomach. As she slogged through the suffocatingly humid miles, she closed her eyes in a self-pitying whine of frustration and in that blind moment, got tangled up in a tree branch and bit it. Hard.

As chance would have it, she caught herself with her pulled back muscle. She crawled on the grass in pain crying "why God?!" looking around for anyone who would sympathize. Alas, she was alone. She pulled herself up and hobbled the last 2 miles back to her car, bringing her to a measly 7 miles for the day instead of 13.

With her tail tucked between her legs, she sat in her ice bath and denied herself the little chocolate covered donut she had bought herself the day before as motivation for this run. Bagging a run is something our runner friend Kate had never done before and so felt she didn't deserve her reward. She also admitted to being humbled saying, "I will never go out for a run unprepared ever again!" and adding later that yes, the beers were a horribly stupid idea.

And that, my dear friends, is how a planned 13 mile run turned into an actual 7 miles covered. Chin up old girl. Tend to your back and next week will be better.

Fartlek

I've been feeling rejuvenated after Saturday's 18 miler which, if you think about it, is an insane thing to say. I never thought anything would feel good after running 18 straight miles in a row but golly, here I am.

It's still on the hot side in my little corner of the globe but thankfully the humidity has taken a vacation for the last few days. In order to prove to myself that I still have something resembling "speed", I decided to run a fartlek this afternoon. I haven't done much speed work in my training, and none at all in the past few weeks. Getting the miles in at all has been difficult enough without running them hard. Today's only rule was that there were no rules. I ran hard when I felt like it, and easy when I didn't. I ended up doing close to 1/2 mile repeats with the pace being close to 9:15mpm.

I was feeling so good and determined by the end of my run that I decided to run the last mile "all out." Stupid? Probably but my pace has been so slow lately I felt the need to prove to myself that I could still run "fast". Lo and behold, my last mile clocked in at 8:13. Still not setting any land speed records but that's pretty good for me. Don't get me wrong, I still got passed during this mile by some guy who looked like he was out for a Sunday jog pushing his kid in a stroller, but I was still pretty daggon pleased with that time.

As I type this afterwards, I'm spent. I couldn't ever imagine running 26.2 miles at an 8:13 pace. But then again, I never thought I'd say I feel rejuvenated after an 18 mile run either.

Life's funny like that!

And then there was...The 18 miler

How can 17 be so bad and 18 be so so good?

Today I am a firm believer that without the bad days, there would be no good days. This run felt good. I'm as shocked as everyone else. Coming off the last few weeks, I thought surely I was toast. I thought surely I would struggle through this run and come straight home and switch my registration from the full to the half. I thought surely I would be ending the day in tears, giving away all my running gadgets to someone more worthy of them than silly ol' me.

Ha! I'm keeping the Garmin and sticking to the full and I'M GOING TO DO THIS THING!!

My dad ran with me again but left the future BIL at home which turned out to be ok. Without him running in circles around me and playing in the trees and skipping off to look at who knows what, I was able to focus on my form and my breathing and settle into a comfortable groove. It was downright chilly when we started which I was over the moon about! I wore a long sleeved t-shirt over my singlet for the first mile and could even see my breath. Hallelujah! Dad and I chatted through the first 6.5 miles so they went by really fast. 7-13.5 also went by pretty fast because I had some new tunes on the pod (yeah, I know, I took it with me today even though I said I'd cut it out, but I'm glad I had it) and took a route I'd never been on before. The last 4.5 miles were all mental, the last two pure grit, a lot of "left, right, left, right" going through my head just to put one foot in front of the other. Only 1 unscheduled walk break but I was able to beat down my Negative Monster pretty quickly and press on. (Thanks Nancy!)

And in the end, 18.10 miles in 3:30:07. Slow, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. My pacing today was much more consistent than it's been in a long time. About 15 of those miles were right between 11:10-11:15. One mile was around 10:30 (don't ask) and my unscheduled walk break mile was about 13:00. Other than that, pretty consistent. WAHOO!

Now, food and drinks with friends. What could be better after a morning like that?!

Happy running...!