13.14 mile run

I do feel like I want to crawl into bed and wake up when my legs don't ache, but I did complete my first ever 1/2 Marathon distance.


And along with that came completing the goal I set for myself in February, to double my 2013 distance of 150 miles.

It wasn't a pretty run, but before the re-cap, let's go to Saturday.

I had a successful day on Friday, eating normally and woke up on Saturday to 180.0. I was so tempted to not drink or eat anything at my WW meeting and see if I had to go to the bathroom again when I got home, but I was too hungry and I figured that was just a little bit too neurotic.

It was 35 degrees when I woke up - I was very jealous of my running friend who got to do her long run on Saturday. I had thought my daughter's soccer game was at 10:15 on Saturday, but it was at 2:15 - I was tempted to run on Saturday, but I hadn't carbo loaded at all and I really wanted to go to WW, plus I couldn't lie down all day like I intended to do on Sunday. So I spent all Saturday getting stuff done for the week to come so I could truly do nothing on Sunday, except for run. We went to soccer and then out to dinner (Italian  - ie pasta :) )

The forecast for Sunday had been humid and 80 all week. When I woke up at 5:30, it was pouring! I looked at the radar and knew I had to wait it out - though the hourly forecast showed potential for thunderstorms, which made me nervous. I stayed in bed a while longer and heading out at 7:00. The sun was starting to come out when I left my house, but by the time I got to the bike path it was raining again.

When I got out of my car, my passenger seat was wet and a wet camelback proved that I had not secured my bladder correctly. In trying to fix it in the rain, I lost quite a bit of water. I didn't think about replacing it with water I had in the car because last week I had had so much water left.

The rain ended pretty quickly and didn't rain for the rest of my run.

I had a Salted Caramel Gu before I started, and at around 3,6 and 9 miles. Because it was 100% humidity, I took some water at each mile. The drawback of a camelback is not knowing how much water is left :(

I ran the 5 miles to the end of the path, turned around and ran 1.5 miles, then turned around again and went to the end again and then onward for the final 5 miles.

Negative splits were not meant to be. The humidity was starting to get to me. I knew my water was getting low and I needed it for my final Gu. Once I hit 11.7 miles, I knew I had completed my 2014 goal of 300 miles. I was very tempted to quit and walk the last 1.5 miles, but I knew I could run and be done faster. The last couple of miles were torture. I felt a twinge in my hip, my ankle, my knees were aching, and then I felt like my toes were rubbing together on my left foot and it hurt.

But I did it. I hit 13.14 miles (I did a little extra because I want to do a full 5K + 10 miles). I was so relieved. I walked the remaining .25 miles and walked around the parking lot for a while. I took a good 30 minutes to stretch, walk and decompress before I left like it was safe enough for me to get in the car and drive 25 minutes home.

Before I drove off, I took off my shoes and socks to put on my calf compression sleeves. I found HUGE blisters on both my big toes - on the side next to my 2nd toe.

I skipped my normal routine of getting gas on the way home. Even though I was thinking of getting 2 bags of ice and doing my first ice bath. But I just wanted to get home.

I took a long warm bath and then lay on the couch all afternoon. I ate like crazy (and did drink a lot of water) - this is why I gained so much weight in 2002 when I was training for Mt Rainier - every Saturday for 4 months I hiked 3-5 hours and then ate like crazy the remainder of the day and all the next day.

But I don't plan on having this feeling much - I am completely nervous about my toes. I am scared that whatever caused them to blister will happen early in the race in 2 weeks and I will be in pain, or I won't be able to continue. I am nervous for humidity.

Right now I am just eager to run 3.14 miles on Sunday for the 1/2 Marathon race to be over so I can go back to running 7 miles. I still can't believe I am looking forward to 7 miles because that would be easy.