As of Friday afternoon my plan was to hit up the gym for a quick cross training session before my 7 mile long run on Saturday. I did get in 55 mins of elliptical work and logged 6 miles on Friday evening. While at dinner I decided to text my running friends to see what their Saturday long run plans were. Both of them were joining the KTC marathon training run the next morning, one was scheduled to run 16 miles and the other 18 miles. The training options were 14 and 18. Crap. I only had a 7 miler planned since I will be running a half marathon on Feb. 11th. What to do??
I text my friend and told her maybe I could just go and run and see how I felt. She encouraged me to just try the 14 mile course and do it as a training run. I don't have a time goal for the race on Saturday so I thought about it. We text back and forth a few minutes and I decided that I would ideed go for it and rather than run 7 miles I would go for 14. My wonderful husband also encouraged me to go. They all had faith in me that I could run the 14 miles. So, I was stoked. I agreed and as the night progressed the more excited I got about the next morning's run.
The forecast?? 100% chance of rain. Super duper. Seriously, I was even stoked about that. I hadn't ran in the rain prior to that and even text one of my friends that I was excited for the rain sinc I was a "rainy run virgin." Haha So, I got everything laid out Friday night and ready to go for Saturday morning. The group was meeting at Runner's Market at 8am and I really am not sure if I even thought about the course or knew what it was. It didn't matter.
I got a great night's sleep but do remember having a hard time falling asleep because I was excited for the next day's run. It almost felt like I was preparing for a race! At 5am I heard the kids awake. Ugh, I still had over an hour of sleep left. At that point I was paranoid I wouldn't hear the alarm clock adn dozed off and on having this weird dream of being stuck at the top of a high rise in a broken elevator. So, by 6:30 I was up and getting myself ready to go run 14 miles in the rain.
When I arrived to Runner's Market I didn't see either of my friends but recognized another lady I know and we said hello. The "coach" that was in charge of the training run gave directions regarding the different distances for the day and at 8am on the nose we were out the door running. I was running alone which normally would be bothersome to me but for whatever reason I didn't even let the thought cross my mind. It wasn't really raining to start but was definitely wet out. I wore my rain jacket for the first 3.5 miles and was warm but because I was in such a great running groove I didn't want to stop to take it off. I'm no good and stripping while running! haha
The first 3.5 miles were uneventful. I saw many runners pass me. I passed a few runners. I saw some familiar faces (bloggers and from local races). It didn't feel at all like I was out there alone. Here are my splits for the first 3 miles.
1- 10:08
2- 10:12
3- 10:19
At around mile 3 I passed a tall, thin girl who had stopped up hill to take off her shirt. I smiled, she said she was hot, I agreed. I knew I didn't want to stop at that point because just at the top of the hill was the 3.5 mile marker and I thought that would be a great time to break since we had to wait for the street signals to change and cross the road. She caught up with me and said she wasn't from around the area and I seemed to be going her pace, could she hang with me? Sure! So, I asked how far she was going and she said 18. Awesome! I told her I was only going 14 and wasn't sure where the group was turning around but my plan was to go out 7 and come back, same route. She thought that sounded good to her and told me she was from FL and had been training there. She was struggling with the hills. I could totally relate to the hills being killer.
We chatted the next 3 miles or so and at 7 miles we took a short break to eat a snack and drink water. My splits for miles 4-7 are:
4- 10:56 (I didn't stop Mr. G at street crossings)
5- 10:40
6- 10:21
7- 10:15
When we stopped I ate half a Honey Stinger waffle and drank some water. When we started running again the, while only drizzly, started up. I wasn't sure how I felt about it because at this point I had already decided to take off my jacket and was not ready to stop again to put it back on. My goal was to keep running until the 10 mile marker before stopping for another quick snack/water break. I knew then I could refill my water and prepare mentally for going a mile longer than what had been my longest run (13.1 and I was going for 14). Miles 7-10 were uneventful. The young girl that had been running with me was now behind me. I think mostly because we were running on a sidewalk and there just wasn't much room for running 2 wide, so there wasn't much chatting. Splits for 8-10 are:
8- 10:21
9- 10:18
10- 11:01
At mile 10 I stopped at the water stop KTC had laid out and refilled my water. I didn't stop Mr. G for this but wasn't concerned with that throwing my overall time off. The goal now was to make it to 13.1 and then one more mile until the run was over. I decided to run the trail back rather than the road. The trail is a little gravely (small gravels) and much softer so I thought this was a good decision as it would be less pounding on my body. The only bad part of this decision was one small gravel in my shoe. ouch. It didn't hurt too bad and was mostly annoying but I just kept running. I can't even tell you what my train of thought was except I kept telling myself that this run was awesome, I couldn't wait to log it and, "haters gonna hate." I'll keep you thinking on that last one. haha Cruel, I know.
I didn't plan to stop again until I hit 14 miles but around mile 12 I decided to eat the last of my Honey Stinger waffle because I knew the killer hill up to mile 14 was brutal and would take every ounce of energy I had left. After a few seconds I was back at it again. Miles 11 and 12 were great.
11- 10:18
12- 10:00
I don't even know that I thought about my pace this run but just knew I wasn't racing and that I needed to go slow. Slow for a long run for me now means 10:00 to 10:30 minute miles and I was spot on. I knew I was good when I was able to talk without a problem with the young girl I met and ran with. I wish I had gotten her name, bummer. I'm sure I will see her again at another training run. These were thoughts I had during the last couple miles when we had gone our separate ways. She had to repeat the last few miles we'd just ran. She's a trooper for sure.
13- 10:11
I had to tackle the beast of a hill known as Noelton. It was a breeze coming down into the start of my. I don't recall a thing about it from my first half marathon (ran on this same course). But I knew that I wanted to try to run it. So, I started to walk just before I got to the hill. I gave myself a peptalk and decided I would as much of the hill as I could. I did. I tried hard to tackle that hill. I did run farther on it than I remember running the frist time. I DID stop and walk some of it but I DID start running it again. Mile 14 was the best even with the sucky hill.
Mile 14- 11:01
Why was that 11 minute mile the best with all those 10+ minute miles? Because mile 14.13 meant that this run was the longest run I had ever done. I recall not feeling like this run was mentally hard. The only time I felt that it was physically tough was at that last hill (Noelton). When I got back to my car I grabbed my phone to take a picture for my husband. I saw I had missed a text from him. I let him know my run was good and he said, "How do you feel?" I replied back, "Like I ran 14.13 miles!!!" To which he replied, "You are a badass."
And I am. It's exactly how I felt. My new mantra....
Go the distance.
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