Finally my post-run triumphant selfie! Even though the run didn't go at all the way I hoped it would, I'm just so happy that I did it. Hopefully I can recover from the effort and have a great day at the race. I'm pretty sure it can't possibly go as badly as this run so it will be a big WIN for me.
Ah, that "I just finished something worth finishing" smile.
I'm thinking, "Jeeze this better be worth it because I just want to curl up in a ball and never move again!"
Let me tell you about the technical parts of the run.
Pre-run food: Tall glass of water, 1.5 slices of whole wheat toast with a thin layer of peanut butter and some honey. 2 Imodium (not leaving that to chance...) Couple gulps of Gatorade and two Jelly Belly sports beans.
I packed: 8oz of Nuun, 8oz of orange Gatorade, 1 apple pie Lara Bar, 1 pouch Jelly Belly sports beans.
My awesome husband dropped off a 32 oz of lemon Gatorade at the 10 mile mark on his way to work. Isn't that so sweet :)
The weather was a beautiful 55 degrees and very mild with a very light breeze and mostly overcast with some direct sunshine. I started out with a long sleeve on over my tank but I took that off after about 3 miles.
The course was a 10 mile out and back along mostly very desolate country roads (16 out of the 20). There are quite a bit of rolling hills and a couple steep hills.
Now my general thoughts.
It was pretty glaringly obvious to me right from the get-go that this was not going to be pretty. I felt really lead-like and drained despite taking two whole days off. I'm really glad I told my Aunt I would be gone a solid 4 hours because I ended up being gone longer than that...
Running in the morning is a lot different than running at night. Apparently I should have added some extra food in the morning or something because I never really caught up to the fact that I was hungry and devoid of easy energy. My body seemed very reluctant to use fat stores (or at least that is how I felt), which there are plenty of! So I started doing intervals. Nothing fancy with set times. I would jog as long as I could, and then walk until I thought I could jog again. That is how the entire run went. I would jog as far up a hill as I could and then walk the rest of the way up and then jog again. I took sips of drink often and sometimes I felt "good" but it never lasted long. I had heartburn and I got cramps in my upper abdomen when I jogged very far. This hadn't happened before so I wasn't sure about what I should do about this. I just kept jogging and walking. I drank all of my drinks and then at the end I hobbled to a convenience store and begged some water because I just didn't think I could make it home (3 more miles) with nothing. Thankfully the lady there was in my Zumba class and I went to school with her and her husband! THANK YOU FOR THE WATER! :)
After 15 or so miles it hurt more to walk than to jog, but the pain in my abdomen never let me jog very far. Finally at 17 miles I was thinking maybe it was my fuel belt and I loosened it a lot and put it very low on my hips and voila, my abdomen was fine... Are you kidding me? I could have loosened the belt and run that much more if only I had thought of that sooner... Sigh. We live, we run, we learn. I'm hoping that maybe I won't need to wear my belt during the marathon. They have water/sports drink at every 2 miles... I'll have to think about that. Also, I will have to stuff 2 Lara Bars and 2-3 packets of sports beans in my bra. Plus my phone.. HA!
So there you have it. It wasn't pretty, but I learned a lot and mentally I'm much more ready for the race because I had a horrible run and the race cannot be that bad! :)
I had one big oops and that was forgetting the sun in mid-May is quite penetrating even when it is mostly overcast. Yup, I'm a little bit on the lobster side this morning. Time to go buy some fresh sunblock!
And who says sport bra tan lines aren't awesome? HA!
I'm a "salty sweater". When I sweat I get covered with salt crystals. Water has not been my friend on long runs. I need something salty in my water so I switched to Nuun hydration tablets. They work really well but then I start dreaming about drinking the murky puddle water on the side of the road because maybe Nuun is a little too salty for me? I switched to plain old Gatorade for the 20. It has a little lower concentration of salts than Nuun and also has added sugar, which for a long run you (I definitely) need.
Looking a bit salty around the gills!
They say that you can't train for a marathon and not change. They are not just talking about the physical changes that happen to your body. They are talking about your mind and the way you look at things. It's a lot of work to put in the hours of training and to not give up. It's a huge mental battle sometimes to keep putting one foot in front of the other instead of calling someone to come get you. I'm really glad I decided to go on this journey. It's not over yet and I feel like I have already reaped so many rewards. I hope you can all challenge yourselves to something that will be life changing. It will be difficult and you will feel like throwing in the towel in the 11th hour, but if you didn't feel like this, it wouldn't really be worth it. Good luck on your journeys! And thank you for continuing to join me in mine!
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