Around the bend and back again.

My long run this week was to either be 18 or 22 miles. I decided to go for 22 since I had done 18.5 as my last really long training run and this week would be my longest before the marathon on April 1st. The KTC Marathon Training group was meeting at 8am at the beautiful Cades Cove so I decided to join them. Terri met my husband and I at our house at 7:10am and we were on our way to the Cove. It was a pretty chilly morning (36 with windchill at 33) but would be warming up to 54 by the time we would be done running. Dressing for this run was slightly difficult but I managed to do ok. I decided on a UA Tech tee with a UA cold gear mock neck over it but also packed extra dry clothes.

Once we were at the Cove we went for a quick potty break and met up with the group and us lovely ladies posed or a pre-run photo....

[caption id="attachment_1128" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lovely group of running buddies!"][/caption]

After a picture we were on our way. Terri and I were running together. Our goal for the run was to take the regular loop out (with traffic) through the Cove and to take things slow, not push our pace. Slow for the run being 10:30ish pace. The first mile of the run is almost at a complete downhill grade and what wasn't downhill was relatively flat, which cannot really be said for much of Cades Cove loop! Less than a mile in the run we came into a slight obstacle. Part of the roadway was covered in water. This is both good and bad. Good because the creeks were up since we had a lot of rain which hopefully means we won't suffer much with drought in the coming warmer months. Bad because we were at the beginning of our run and what runner wants soggy shoes at less than a mile in when you have SO many miles ahead of you yet??

[caption id="attachment_1129" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Can't swim it? No problemo! We'll jump it!"][/caption]
Someone smart in the group decided that it would be best to just jump the creek and make our way through the woods. This would bring us out on the other side of the road crossing and we could avoid soggy shoes, but only IF we all successfully landed our jumps. All I can say is thank goodness for all the squats and jumping (and of course running) to build strong legs!! We all successfully landed perfect 10s, of course.

We were back on track and running along, enjoying the sights. Cades Cove is really the most beautiful place in all of East TN to run. Michaela and the other lovely girls were behind us but I'm really not sure why because those ladies carry some serious speed. They did eventually pass us by but not before Michaela let me know she snapped a picture of us Bad A$$ Mother Runners!!
[caption id="attachment_1130" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="BAMRs"][/caption]
Can I just say that I don't mind having pictures of my back side taken anymore?? After Michaela said she got a picture of my back side I'm pretty sure I played the role of huge dork and smacked my buns for her! haha Gotta have a little fun on the run.

My husband was also running with Terri and myself but was only planning to do one loop or roughly 11 miles. We lost him somewhere around just after the first mile because he ducked into the woods. He had already told me before the run not to worry about staying with him. He was just planning to run and enjoy it. He and I are mostly at different paces right now. He also is not running the marathon, but I love any chance to include him in my training.

Terri and I kept on and decided to take a short snack/water break at mile 4. I think our goal was to make sure we were fueled properly so that we were able to keep it going over all the hills and make the distance. I had mentioned to her that I wasn't even going to post my splits BUT you all know I can't not include my splits from a long run. We didn't always remember to stop our Garmins so some of the splits are a little longer but mostly it doesn't matter since we were running to finish the miles, not racing! So, here are the splits for miles 1-4...

Mile 1 9:45
Mile 2 10:02
Mile 3 10:25
Mile 4 10:33

We only took a short break at mile 4. I took 2 Honey Stinger chews and some water. So far so good and I was happy to have ran every hill to this point with no issues. I forget what point it was but there was one lovely hill that Terri and I were just running along when we hear someone yelling curse words. We just kind of looked at each other and noticed a lady up ahead of us going up the hill. She told us not to mind her. We could hear her cursing and saying how, "This is CRAZY. Just crazy." Terri and I both encouraged her to push through. Not sure if our encouragement helped or not but hopefully it did. I felt bad or her really. I could remember my first time attempting that hill and I know it's bad.

The next stop for us would be at the bathrooms at about the midway point of the run. We hit it just before 6 miles.
Splits for miles 5 and 6 are..

Mile 5 10:24
Mile 6 10:24

We met the lovely, Gretchen from Pink Runner Girl at our 6 mile potty, snack stop and not long after my husband showed up. I was glad he wasn't too far behind us. I had him snap a quick picture of us and warned Gretchen that any and all pics from the day were subject to being blog material! Luckily, she said she didn't mind. So here we are...
[caption id="attachment_1131" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Gretchen, me and Terri looking lovely after 6 miles"][/caption]

It had already warmed up quite a bit so I took off my long sleeve, cold gear top. I took another 2 Honey Stinger chews and refilled my water in the fountain and we were on our way again. Another runner in the parking lot said someone told her the next half of the run was the easy part. I mumbled what I thought was under my breath that I thought it was hard. haha She heard me and was like oh no! Terri and I told her it wasn't bad just a bit hilly going up compared to the first half but it's a great training run for hills. I knew for myself that in my past 3 times running there that I had not been as strong on the hills. I surprised myself this time by running them all on this first 10+ mile loop.We played tag with a couple of other ladies on the rest of the run. We joked and said we were drafting! It's fun to play little games like that and makes the time seem to pass by before you even have a chance to think about it! If I remember correctly we stopped again for another snack between mile 8-9. The splits from mile 7-10 are...

Mile 7 10:52
Mile 8 10:38
Mile 9 10:31
Mile 10 10:43

We reached our starting point (the parking lot) just beyond mile 10. My husband wasn't back yet so were unable to get into the car. He had the key and even though he told me to take the extra fob I didn't listen. We had planned to maybe change shirts again and refill with fresh bottled water but since he wasn't back and I had no key we decided to just take a potty break and head back on our way. When we broke for the potty I took time to stretch and have a small piece of a Honey Stinger waffle (mmm strawberry!). We decided to do the second loop in the opposite direction and I knew the hills were going to be tough. In fact, around mile 8-9 on the nice downhill we were running I told Terri, "Boy, this is going to be loads of fun on the way back out for our second loop!" And as great as she always is she reminded me that hill training is good and this would only make me more prepared for the marathon.

Around mile 12 we met up with a friend of Terri's. He was going in the opposite direction but joined us for a little while. I'm not sure what it was at this point but it almost became mentally hard for me. I don't really recall my train of thinking. I do remember Terri saying, "Meet my friend Kim, she's lost nearly 90 lbs by running." It makes me feel good to know that Terri is so proud of me and happy to share my story with others. She's always saying what an inspiration I am to her and others but she (SHE) is such an inspiration to me. She was out there running my longest run ever with me after having ran a 50 miler just a couple of weeks ago AND on an achy hip! How is THAT for inspiring?! It felt great when her friend said he loved hearing stories like that. And I really DO love sharing it and love for others to share it. I am still amazed sometimes when I think about where I was just last year. I never never ever imagined that I would be on my way to running over 20 miles.

I think the mental issue (thanks to Terri's insight) was that I knew those killer hills were coming and I was letting them get to me before I even began running them. I'm happy to report that I mostly ran those hills. I DID walk briefly up one of the really hard ones but it wasn't because my quads were screaming. It had more to do with my heart feeling like it was going to burst out of my chest. That hadn't happened in a while but I knew I just needed a quick walk to get my breathing under control and settle my heart rate back into the rhythm I needed it to be in.

Terri was great about asking how I was doing and feeling. Besides the one hill the only other issue I had was the downhills. After so many miles the beating just kind of hurt my knees. It wasn't so unbearable that I couldn't keep running but mostly the pounding on the pavement down so much was just achy. It eased up when I was forced off the road into the shoulder (or lack of) and onto softer ground. I say forced because some drivers were not so nice. One lady even yelled, "GET OVER!," to us. Terri and I were not so happy about that and we might have had a few nice words for her too but I will refrain from sharing what I said. haha Just know that I wish drivers would respect what we are out there trying to achieve!

Our next stop would be back at the bathrooms. I can't really recall the exact mileage point. I want to say it was between 15-16 miles. So here are the splits from mile 11-15.

Mile 11 10:55
Mile 12 10:40
Mile 13 10:45
Mile 14 10:34
Mile 15 10:41

On our way into the parking lot at the bathrooms we ran into Michaela, Angela and Lindsay. We were excited to see them! I threw my arms up in true Rocky fashion and yelled, "I'm still winning!!!!" Michaela will get that one. :) Such fun. We chatted about how we all were doing and feeling and knew we'd see each other again at the campsite for some yummy food! If food can't motivate me to keep going nothing will. haha

After a potty break, snack (2 more Honey Stinger chews!) and stretching we were ready to start back and tackle the last half of the second loop. I told Terri that once we hit 18.5 miles I would like to take a minute at each 2 mile spot to kind of regroup and get my mental game on. 18.5 miles had been my longest run to date and it was a tough run (you can read about it here) with some mental setbacks so the last thing I wanted on this run was to feel mentally defeated. Terri agreed and even suggested we do a run/walk for the last part. I agreed because I knew her hip was aching and didn't want to push it anyway. I knew our pace was all over the place and this run really was just about covering the distance while enjoying the beauty of our surroundings. We agreed on a 10-2 run/walk.

Justin had only ran 11 miles and had agreed to meet us on the 2nd loop with the car which included dry shirts and fresh water. We had waited and waited to see him. Finally just after mile 17 I spotted him in a pull off. He was already out doing his paparazzi photographing us as we came towards the pull off where he parked the car. It was great to see him and to know we would have dry shirts!
He snapped these pictures for us..


[caption id="attachment_1133" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Happy runners even after 17 hilly miles!"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1134" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Dry shirts!! Oh and a LOVELY view! "][/caption]

I can't tell you how good it felt to have a non-sweaty shirt. A little funny... I have never changed my shirt out in the wide open like that before. My husband was off to the side talking to a car full of past high school students and all I could think (and said to Terri) was here I am this chubby girl out here stripping out of her shirt in the wide open. No don't look fatty's taking her shirt off Terri, of course, corrected me right away and all negative talk was stopped.

We refilled with fresh water, grabbed some fuel (2 more Honey Stinger chews for me) and stretched again before we thanked Justin and told him to hurry and get those avocados back to the campsite because Michaela wanted to make some guacamole. Mmmmm guacamole. YES, I could run 4 more miles just save me some green stuff!! And a burger, a REALLY BIG burger. (It is totally what I said to Justin as I thanked him for meeting us and said goodbye.)

We agreed to continue on our run/walk way until we reached the end of the run. I was excited because we had talked about doing the 2nd loop backwards so that we could wade through the creek that was covering the roadway (the one we jumped at the beginning of the run). I was looking forward to taking off my shoes and socks and putting my feet in that icy water even if was just for a minute. I don't remember the last little bit of the run being super difficult. I recall that when I looked at my Garmin and it showed 18.51 miles I told Terri "distance PR 18.51." But it wasn't until 19 miles that we really got excited over my distance PR.

I think it was at mile 19.5 when we were able to take our shoes off to wade across the water. I cannot tell you how great that felt. I screamed and cheered and told all the passing cars how they should put their feet in that refreshing water. haha I was having too much fun really. After we got across the water though I sat in the little pull of parking lot and laid down before finally putting back on my shoes and socks. That little break was nice! We finally decided we couldn't sit too much longer and knew there was food at the end to be eaten. So we laced up and started back. I groaned and I grunted. That little break was nice but going again hurt! Terri says, "I know baby but we got this. We are almost there!" She was right!

While I had really hoped to make it a 22 mile run for the day I told Terri I was fine to stop at 21 miles. She agreed. I mostly was happy with that because I knew that we were going to be short anyway because the loop was not an exact 11 miler. I have issues with stopping my Garmin on an odd run anyway and just wanted things to be even. I also wanted to be able to have a good cool down and knew the walk back would be less mental if I just stopped and called it done at 21 miles.

The splits for miles 16-21 are crazy off. I didn't stop my Garmin when we were taking off our shoes and such. I forgot to hit the lap button at mile 18. But here they are...

Mile 16 12:20
Mile 17 10:29
Mile 18-19 22:27 (11:13 average)
Mile 20 11:25
Mile 21 13:27

3 hours and 48 minutes later I had ran 21 miles. I RAN twenty one miles of hills in Cades Cove. I conquered my longest run to date and I didn't even cry! I didn't want to quit. I didn't feel defeated. I was proud. I had been around the bend and back again.

And since this post was so long I will do a 2 part post on the post run party!