All that remains is 26.2

I have officially completed my longest training run: 20 miles! I knew this run was going to be a big obstacle, physically and mentally, so when I saw that there was a 20 miler "race" in Elk Grove, I decided to register. I call it a "race" because it wasn't timed and there were no "winners", but everything else was set up like a race: pace teams, aid stations, etc. I always do better when I'm running in a race setting so I figured this would help my motivation.

After only about 6 hours of sleep last night due to attending a rehearsal dinner, I sleepily drove myself to Elk Grove. It was still dark out when I got there, but I could feel the race atmosphere as soon as I pulled into the parking lot. I love that feeling. Then I started noticing that at least half of the cars there had "26.2" stickers on them. It made me excited, but also a little intimidated. Where were my fellow first timers?? Luckily the running community is a friendly one, so as soon as I got out of my car and the person parked next to me struck up a conversation, I knew I had nothing to worry about. That may be one of my favorite parts of running: how friendly and accepting everyone is. No one cares how long you've been running, no one cares how fast you are, we're all runners and we're all in this together (Ooh... High School Musical idea for playlist... also, what is with my overuse of colons in this post... can you tell I need sleep???)

The race started in waves, and each wave had pace leaders. Except for my wave. Our pace leader was apparently MIA. We were orphans. :( So we set our own pace. With people walking through aid stations and stopping at bathrooms though, most of the groups broke up anyway within the first 5 miles. I was on my own for most of the run, but I was ok with that because there was still a group feeling along the whole course.

Around mile 14 (right before the last turn around), it started to rain a bit, and the sky was pretty dark. And then that little bit turned into A LOT. The rain was literally coming down in sheets, and the thunder and lightning was pretty crazy, but at that point we were no where near a shelter or aid station, so our only choice was to keep going. When we did get to the aid station, they were encouraging everyone to stop and go under the shelter until the lightning past, however I knew that if I did this, physically my legs would cramp up, and mentally I would be out of running mode. So the girl next to me looked at me and said, "The lightning would probably hit a tree before it hit us, right?" I agreed, and we kept going. Needless to say, the last 5 miles of my run involved a lot of sloshing in my shoes, and my shirt and shorts plastered to my skin. FUN!

Other than that, the run overall went very well. I felt great (well, as great as you can when you're running 20 miles), and I only had a couple moments where I really had to battle it out mentally. I'm still not sure how I'm magically supposed to add 6.2 miles to my distance for the marathon, but I know it must work since that's how almost all of the training plan work. If I've learned anything from these long runs though, it's that this is mostly a mental feat, not a physical one. I'm sure that I can physically run 26.2 miles, I just need to get beat the mental aspect of it. I'm sure though that running with 40,000 other people and having over a million people cheering me on will help me get through that.

But for now, I shall enjoy the glory of tapering over the next 3 weeks. Oh, and a pedicure. I get to go have one of those in an hour because of the wedding I'm in tomorrow. It's going to be amazing.

Miles this week: 27 miles (Yes, I am completely slacking on mid-week runs. Whatever, I still did my 20. That's what matters in my mind.)
Weeks of training finished: 26 weeks
Total miles of training: 434 miles

Did that really just happen?

I've been bad about updating since I started training again, so I will try to get things up to speed...

The first week back: I had two mid-week runs right after finding out that I could start running again, so in order to ease back in I ran 4 miles that Wednesday, and 5 miles that Thursday. They were the first times that I had gone running before work, and I hadn't really thought about the fact that I needed to run at 5am, and the sun doesn't rise until 6am. So it was a bit interesting/creepy running that early while it was still dark, but I stayed within our subdivision. Both runs went well!

Last weekend's long run: I was scheduled to run 18 miles last weekend and drop-back to 14 miles this weekend, but since I was supposed to ease back in, I flip flopped those two. The weather was absolutely perfect last Sunday morning, which was a welcome change from the hot, humid summer. Considering that it was my first long run after being off for a week, 14 miles went pretty well, and more importantly, pain free. It was a little tough at the end, which made me very nervous to add on 4 miles the next weekend...

This week: I've been struggling with mid-week runs for awhile now, and while I haven't been too concerned about it because I'm completing my long runs, I still have a feeling of guilt when I don't get in the miles I'm supposed to. I ended up running after work on Tuesday because of the 25 mph winds on Tuesday morning. I was supposed to run 9 miles after work on Wednesday with a co-worker who is also training. We were going to change right after school and go right from there. Of course as I went to go change, I discovered that I had left a key piece of clothing at home... so I told her I was just going to go home and run when I got home. Luckily, another co-worker decided to join her. So, I got home, and of course got distracted by things that needed to be done around the house and didn't get going as soon as I wanted. And then when I did start running, my legs felt like lead. I went about 3 miles and said screw it. I was already nervous enough for my 18 mile run that weekend that I decided I was better off resting my legs for Saturday. So I skipped my Thursday run also...

18 miles: Needless to say, I was really worried about my 18 mile run. With the way 14 miles went, and the way my mid-week runs went, I wasn't sure how 18 was going to happen. And of course when we got up on Saturday, it was rainy. We drove to the trail anyway, hoping it would let up. It was coming down pretty hard when we got there, and it was chilly. I really didn't want to push my run until Sunday, so we waited it out in the car for a few minutes. It finally let up a little, and we got going. We stayed fairly dry until about mile 11 when it started coming down pretty good. It was short lived though, and I pushed on. I found myself not really feeling worn out until about mile 13. It was bearable though, until about mile 16 when I really felt it. At that point though, I knew that if I stopped to walk, I would cramp up and it would be that much harder to start again. I also knew that I would be EXTREMELY upset if I didn't finish, so I pushed on. I'm not sure how, but I successfully ran 18 miles, and my pace was somewhat acceptable (for me, at least...)

So there are a few things that got me through those 18 miles. I'd like to thank:

• My husband, once again. No way I could do that carrying my own water. :)
• My refreshed playlist. Every time I started to feel myself lagging, a new addition to my playlist would come on and get me fired up.
• My new fuel of choice: Pretzel M&M's. As you know, my stomach does not tolerate carb gels, so I have been using Swedish fish. Lately though, they haven't been doing it for me, not to mention how unpleasant it can be to have gumminess in your mouth while running. I found myself craving salt later in my runs, so I had an epiphany when I bought some pretzel M&M's for a cookie recipe: pretzel filling=saltiness, candy outside=sugar to digest quickly and get fuel to my body. They worked really well, and I felt like they did the trick better than the Swedish fish. Plus, they are higher in calories, so I don't have to carry as many!
• The glorious fall temperatures
• The academy
• You, if you have read this far
  

Next weekend will be my longest training run, 20 miles. After that, it's taper time!!!

I still can't believe I ran 18 miles yesterday...

Miles last week: 25 miles
Miles this week: 26 miles
Weeks of training finished: 25 weeks
Total miles of training: 408 miles

I love a good quote...

My friend Natalie (who is also one of my biggest cheerleaders), sent me a running quote today:
"Your legs must be strong, but your head must be stronger." I do not have a credit for it, but it is so true, and got me searching for other running quotes. I came across this one that really hit home with everything that has happened over the past week:

"It is difficult to train for a marathon, but it is even more difficult to not be able to train for a marathon." ~Aaron Douglas Trimble

Still incredibly thankful. :)