Twenty.

So, I know it’s a little late…. buuuut I ran 20 miles last saturday!! Twenty. Like 2 and 0….. Wowsers! I woke up around 4:30am and was out the door a little after 5. I was feeling pretty good to start out with and I was trying to keep a good pace and run/walk ratio. I knew when I was yawning on mile 3 that it was going to be a tough one… It was foggy, which made it kinda creepy. I did pretty good for the first few hours, just trying to maintain a reasonable (for me) pace. Here is a picture of the fog around mile 9….

isn’t that kinda creepy? It was misting a bit, but I lost track of what was mist and what was sweat, haha. I could really tell my food choices the few days leading to the run weren’t the best. My stomach had some issues around mile 14 (that thai food the night before probably wasn’t the best pre-long run meal… lesson learned), good thing I found a bathroom. I kept trucking along but I was really feeling worn out. I imagined these guys giving me a pep talk… although it was more like they were looking at me like I was crazy.

I kept checking my gps to see how much further I had, but it seemed like it wasn’t really changing. My body was totally running out fuel, and it was tired, and wet…. I hit about mile 16 and had a complete melt down. I had blisters on my left toes, my right hamstring was horribly tight so I sat down on the sidewalk to stretch. I ended up sitting there for a few minutes crying. I questioned my sanity. I had a pity party. I was texting Chris telling him I didn’t think I could finish…. trying to get him to volunteer to come pick me up, but I knew he wouldn’t. So, I picked myself up and decided if I can do 16 miles than I can do 20. So I did. It took me awhile to do those last 4 miles, but I did it. And despite my mile 16 meltdown… I was proud of myself.

I did 20 miles. That’s just 6.2 miles less than marathon distance! Only 2 more long runs before the race, so here’s to hoping they go better than this one did. Lesson learned, milestone accomplished.

I encourage you all to try to push yourself to do something outside your comfort zone. I’m not saying you should go try to run 20 miles, but maybe you can start with one. Push yourself a little further than you think you can go. You’d be surprised at what you can do!