Fast forward 2 years... and several 10K, Half Marathons, and 2 Tri-Athlon's later... and for the past 4 months we have been training for my first Marathon. My first....and my last... I have already decided. While Lindsey enjoys this , and has the admirable goal of becoming a 50-50'r (1 marathon in each of 50 states....) I just want to finish one. To say I did it, to check another box off the list, to know I was willing to put in the effort required. But I'm not enjoying this... my body is too old... and to screwed up to take the pounding without some serious damage... I fear. So after this one.. I'm going back to Half Marathons.. and will wait at the finish line to cheer my crazy daughter as she works on her goal.
But the funny thing is through all this training... where 3 miles used to feel like the impossible.. now 6 miles is a comfortable Saturday run. 10 miles is a work out... but not a hated distance, and the occasional 13.1 feels like the perfect thing to make sure I keep my fitness level up enough to continue to accompany her.
So yesterday was my last long run before the big event. 20 miles. My longest distance so far. 16 miles went well... 18 miles made me cry... I was terrified of 20... and they all say if you can do 20... you can do 26.2...because the last 6 you run with your heart... not your legs. I understand that more now.
First off the prep work..
Can you believe all the crap you have to have to go run for 20 miles?
Paper towel.. for blowing your nose, gloves (it was cold when we started and I wore these the first 10), water bottle, wet wipes (in ziplock bag) in case I needed to take an emergency bathroom break in the woods..yes you do this....Spibelt to carry snacks (you have to eat every hour), Ipod, and a cooler with a water re-fill.
So our plan was to head to the Loveland bike trail and park in down town Loveland. Run south for 5 miles, back 5 miles to the car... refill water , grab more food if needed... use the bathroom that we knew was open... then run north 5 miles and return to the car. And off we went.
Issue number 1... 5 miles in... where we normally take our first fuel break.. I realize I left my spi-belt in the car and I had no food with me. Lindsey is able to use Gel packs and has no issue with them... they kill my stomach, so even though she had an extra one, I was reluctant to try , and decided I would just wait until I got back to the car to eat... by mile 8, I could tell I was running out of energy... and starting to "bonk". My brain gets goofy and it makes it hard to think...but we have a system, where Lindsey runs to my left and I tend to watch her legs moving out of the corner of my eye... so I focused on watching her... and made it back to the car in good time. I wolfed down 1/2 of my espresso bonk bar in 2 bites, refilled my water, quick trip to the bathroom and hit the trail..
The north bound trails is a lot busier than the south, so that helped to distract us through the next 5 miles. That and Lindsey's catching my up on the last 2 episodes of Tabitha. At 15 miles though it was time to put on the head phones and focus on getting back to the car. I waved Lindsey off (she is faster than I am , and at this point I need to just go into my head and figure out how to ignore the pain. ) Mile 16 and 17 wasn't horrible, but by 18... I was forced to throw in way more walk time than I wanted. Everything hurt, and I was ready to be DONE! By 19 though, I looked at my watch and my goal was to finish in under 5 hours...and it was going to be close... So I picked it up and shuffled my way to the end.
I honestly don't know if I have 6.2 more in me... I guess I'll find that out in 3 weeks. But I want the damn 26.2 sticker for the back of my car... and I'm hoping the marathon atmosphere will help me along the last couple of miles. And I'm going to remind myself that I'm NEVER doing this again.
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