20 miler conquered!
Until Saturday morning, I was planning on running my long run on my own. Everyone I know was either at a local race, a marathon, or was running long on Saturday. I was bummed and a little worried I would totally fail on my own.
I had headed to my hometown, about 20 minutes away, to see family for my sister's youngest boy's birthday party. We were at the hair salon so all the boys could get get fresh haircuts and my phone went off. It was a facebook comment from a lady I have run with once before, checking to see if I was still planning to run Sunday. I quickly replied that I was and it was settled. We would meet at 7am in the Wildwood park lot where we did the last time.
We had a general idea of how/where we wanted to run, but when it came to getting back to the park at the exact mileage we kind of made it up a little as we went. We ran down along the river and it was just insanely beautiful. At the beginning of the run it was a pretty frigid 37 degrees. What happened to fall, I will never know.
Anyway, it was a beautiful run and by mile 13 or 14, I was able to take off my long sleeve pullover. I was a little chilly in my tank top, but the extra layer was just too hot. We made it back to Wildwood, took a quick bathroom break, and hit the trails and hills. We made a small loop back past where we started to hit our full 20 miles.
Want to know a little secret? I was only scheduled for 19 miles but decided to take the advice given to me by some experienced marathoners and run more than one 20 miler. I definitely feel a lot better knowing that I have one more chance to run this and get more comfortable.
I had headed to my hometown, about 20 minutes away, to see family for my sister's youngest boy's birthday party. We were at the hair salon so all the boys could get get fresh haircuts and my phone went off. It was a facebook comment from a lady I have run with once before, checking to see if I was still planning to run Sunday. I quickly replied that I was and it was settled. We would meet at 7am in the Wildwood park lot where we did the last time.
We had a general idea of how/where we wanted to run, but when it came to getting back to the park at the exact mileage we kind of made it up a little as we went. We ran down along the river and it was just insanely beautiful. At the beginning of the run it was a pretty frigid 37 degrees. What happened to fall, I will never know.
Anyway, it was a beautiful run and by mile 13 or 14, I was able to take off my long sleeve pullover. I was a little chilly in my tank top, but the extra layer was just too hot. We made it back to Wildwood, took a quick bathroom break, and hit the trails and hills. We made a small loop back past where we started to hit our full 20 miles.
Want to know a little secret? I was only scheduled for 19 miles but decided to take the advice given to me by some experienced marathoners and run more than one 20 miler. I definitely feel a lot better knowing that I have one more chance to run this and get more comfortable.
I posted this on my personal Facebook and was overwhelmed by love, support and cheers from friends and family. One in particular just made me lose it. It was a message from a friend of a friend who I met about this time last year, right before I ran my first half marathon. She reminded me of a conversation we had in which I was really doubting my ability to ever run a full marathon. She assured me, after this run, "you got this." Not sure if it was being over exhausted from a busy day Saturday and little sleep Saturday night before the run, or what, but these words just hit me like a brick.
Either way, I am super happy and proud that I made the 20 miles with just a few quick walk breaks to fuel and let me legs catch a break for a moment. I feel really good about being 5 weeks out from marathon day. I am definitely still very nervous about it all but feeling much more confident that it will be great.
What milestone was your most exciting in your running career?
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