18 MILES! Longest Yet!

After last weeks long-run disaster, I was determined to make this one, my first 18 miler, a success.  I laid everything out the night before with a plan on getting up about 6 am and hitting it by 7am.  I declared my bedtime at 7:30 and went to bed-that was it, lights out.  I had paid attention to hydration the day, ate well, no alcohol and plenty of rest.

 I hit the trail by 7 as planned.  I broke it into chunks of distance.  I planned to stop after the first 8 for a potty break which I did.  I was an hour into it and was tired but I planned on another 6 before another stop so I did that.  One thing that really helped me eat up the miles is paying attention to my surroundings.  My friend and partner, Noel had suggested I pick a new place to run.  I was on some familiar ground but much was new or areas I had not run in a while. 

It is amazing what you see when you cover the city by foot.  One guy was doing obedience training with his dog who he had on sit-stay.  When I ran past them again later, he was tossing decoys in the water and they dog was retrieving.  In the early morning, there where old men out on boats in Holmes Lake, fishing.  There was a roting dead catfish by the lake, about a 7 pounder.  I didn’t know the lake had fish like that.  All these little distractions kept me going.  Before I knew it, I had just 2 miles left and was passing my longest run mark of 16 miles.

Then…I hit mile 17.  Actually, 17.5.  I am thinkin’, that was the wall.  I felt exhausted, drained, I started to walk, really more like pace as I felt like I was going to puke.  I was next to Old Cheney.  I really wanted to just lay down on the side walk but I thought that would attract a lot of attention.  I couldn’t think of anything better to do so I started running again and counting.  Counting is my last ditch effort to keep going.  So I just went.  And soon enough, it was over.

I stumbled into the house and lay in on the kitchen floor.  I gasped, “Gatorade!” to Jeremy and he got me one while Juliet smiled and crawled over my sweaty, exhausted body.  I remained horizontal for about 15 minutes, sipping fluids.  I felt horrible.  How much worse would I feel after 26 miles!? I like to keep Jeremy in the loop on what to expect and so I told him, “honey, there is a good chance you will have to take my to the hospital after I run the marathon in 4 weeks.”  He said, “If you think something is going to land you in the hospital, maybe you shouldn’t do it.”

Well, I have run almost 300 miles training for this thing so I am not giving up now, no way.  So I have to train a little better.  Here is the plan:

1)  I had to start running faster, sprinting at times and doing more hills.  The idea here is to train my body to handle stress.  My GF Shannon does something called “running splits.”  I don’t know what that is but it involves going fast then slowing down to increase your endurance.

2)  No more skipping runs.  Yep-I have skipped a few runs lately.  I feel tired, maybe over trained but obviously I need to practice the hard stuff so I can do the REALLY hard stuff.

3)  More fluids, more ibuprofen, more sleep.  Those last three are probably something I should do ALL the time, whether training or not.

I am not just a mother…I am a tough mother f***er and I can do this!