Getting there...

I ran 14 miles on Saturday, peeps! This is getting intense! I'm not sure what marathon I'll be doing yet, or even if I'll be doing it by myself or with my running buddies, but I'm already a significant portion of the way through the training! I will probably only have three (maybe 4) training runs with more mileage than I've already done--that makes it feel so close and doable (but at the same time, 14 miles is only a little over half of a marathon...). It's crazy to me how the human body adapts to what's thrown at it. For every run, it's mostly just the last mile or so that my legs get reeeeeally sore. Up until that point, those awesome legs recognize that they've done it before and they know what to do.

So, my long run yesterday was just an extended version of two of the long runs we've done before, but we had a fun time (minus the migraine one of my friends started getting at mile 9--I felt so bad for her!) exploring a little in the middle, deviating from the route I'd created, so that we wouldn't have to turn away from home and go longer when we were SO CLOSE to home. At the end of this run, my legs were the sorest they've been yet on any of this year's training runs. It was basically the same as the way they felt at the end of my training runs for the first half marathon I ran, in 2009. I took some ibuprofen, and then soaked in a cold bath (eek!) and took a hot shower and they recovered really nicely! In fact, I even forgot they might be sore today until Peter asked me if I was sore this morning and I realized I hadn't even noticed them or thought about soreness. The cold soaks worked really well for me last time around too. It's not fun, but it's worth it!

I used GU on this run (nasty stuff!) and there were a few drinking fountains along the way and those worked well for me. I think I probably should have had GU sooner, but it worked out. I actually want to start using my awesome hand held water bottle that has a strap to keep it attached to your hand without you having to hold onto it, but it got lost when we moved last. I have no idea where it is and I've been trying to survive without it. I really need to figure something out though, because I was thirsty by the time I got to the first water fountain and I'll need a better water source when I'm doing even longer runs.

Anyhow, even though this last run was the hardest of them all for me, especially compared to last week's, which felt so easy, I'm excited to do my next even longer run! But that won't come for 3 more weeks because I'm tapering with my running buddies for the half marathon, which is less than 2 weeks away--woohoo!