20 miles

I know it was over a week ago that I ran my BIGGEST TRAINING RUN EVER, but better late than never, right?

So, because of the timing of that half marathon I ran, and the fact that I wanted to be able add the miles of my long runs on at the right rate, my longest run was done two weeks before the race, rather than three. When I've searched for the best way to do it, people seem kinda split about whether to taper for 2 weeks or 3. I figured 2 would be just fine. (In fact, some people are even recommending not to taper at all! But they are the minority...) So, with 2 weeks to go, I tackled the 20 miler. Peter was out of town for this run, but my awesome neighbors (and family that was in town visiting them) watched my kids for the whole time. How awesome is that?? On top of that, another awesome friend gave me a much better handheld water bottle with hand strap the night before, so I was able to ditch my older (but only a few weeks old!) water bottle that was not made very well and was already falling apart.

My route started off at home and then ran all the way to Shoreline Lake and around it, then back home a slightly different way, just to get me started on the first 14 miles. My awesome friend/running buddy, the wife and daughter of those who were watching my kids (which really makes them even more awesome, right?) came with me for the first 14 miles. To me, a seriously social runner, this made a HUGE difference! Seriously, when I'm running with friends, it feels more like a girls' night out or something, and I notice aches and pains and difficult things, but the friends act like Tylenol or something. So, we ran the first 14 miles, and made sure to keep it at a nice even pace that was held back from the fastest we could go, so that we wouldn't bonk or have to slow down later. We had fig newtons and gatorade, and I really made sure to bring enough so that I wouldn't bonk, like I did for the 17 mile run. I didn't bonk on the 18 mile run, per say, but I felt like I was really close. For my friend, this 14 mile run was the longest she's ever run (Go Brittney!), and she didn't even need to run that far because she is doing a half marathon this Saturday in Oregon while I do the marathon in Seattle. That makes her even more awesome, for running further than she needed to AND for being able to run 14 when the longest she'd run recently was something like 10. I seriously have cool friends. Anyway, that first 14 miles wasn't very eventful--nothing went wrong, and we were just able to talk and run for the whole 2+ hours. Sweet!

After I dropped my friend off right in front of our house and super quickly refilled my water bottle with gatorade I'd hidden in the bushes (which only took about 15 seconds), I continued on in a different direction for the last 6 miles. I think this was kind of interesting, because the distance I ran after dropping her off is the same distance I'll have to run after reaching the longest distance I've ever run when I'm doing the marathon. That sounded confusing--hopefully it made sense. Anyway, I continued running, and seriously, this part was not very eventful either! My legs were feeling pretty good (of course getting sorer and sorer, but not 'I really need to stop now' sore) until about 17 or 18 miles. When I reached that point, my legs were really sore, but I still had plenty of energy, thanks to all of the carbohydrate sources I brought with me. I really love fig newtons for long runs! I hadn't used them since I think our 10 mile long run working up to the half. I was missing out! I actually ran mile 19 more than 30 seconds slower than either of the miles around it without noticing I was slowing down, so obviously my legs were affecting me quite a bit (they get seriously sore from so much pavement pounding!), but really, I felt as energetic as you could hope for at that distance, and I was able to pick it up a bit for the last mile in. When I reached 20 miles, instead of stopping to walk the last bit home, I forced myself to keep running for another quarter mile, to see what it feels like when you have to just keep running past what you're expecting and to see what happened mentally. It was hard (and 6 miles shy of the full marathon!), but not kill me hard, so it made me feel a little optimistic. That whole run really went as well as I could have hoped it would go. Now hopefully after tapering for these last couple weeks my legs will go in stronger and more recovered than on the average long run and hopefully the adrenaline and tapering and a good amount of will power will carry me through the last 6 miles and I will finish that race! SIX more days, and 3 short runs!