Leading up to this morning I was fully prepared to celebrate accomplishing a 20 miler today...can you hear the "but" lingering in the air? Forget that, let's start with the positive: today's was run was the best long run I have had in a while. I had great energy, my leg held up, I got to run along the Hudson river in gorgeous weather with my son and husband as my support team, stopping for water and gels as needed. I mean how can you complain about that? Really.
Here's the thing. I woke up with a sore throat and cold. Boo. Undaunted, I packed a handful of cough drops and headed out the door. I ended up sucking on cough drops nearly my entire run (bonus: this gave me an idea to suck on hard candy during the marathon because I really liked having my mouth moist...I will try that next week). How long was the "entire run" you ask? Regrettably only 17.8. The route was mis-mapped and I didn't realize it until I returned home and re-mapped the course, suspicious that I ran 20 miles in 2:55. Lesson learned (sighs).
The good thing is that, in hindsight, I KNOW I could have run 20 miles today...if I had known while I was out there that I was going to be short, I would have kept running until I hit 20. In fact, I was feeling so good during the run that when I indeed did finish "early" there actually was a part of me that thought maybe I did run 20 miles in less than 3 hours. This is a beautiful thing to feel so good and so prepared, particularly in light of my recent set backs.
Also, a few weeks ago I labored through an 18 mile run in 3:16 and barely could walk afterwards. This week revealed my fitness gains in that I ran (nearly) 18 in 2:55!
Clearly I did not have good mile markers and I didn't note many splits along the way, but I do know that I ran the second half faster than the first and was able to accomplish a fast finish. Next week, I WILL map out an accurate 22 mile course and hopefully I will be able to run it in its entirety. My longest run. My last. long. run.
4 comments:
So sorry I boogered up your run...congrats on your progress!
No worries, it was still a positive run and I really appreciated my bike support team!
Excited about being able to see you run the NYC. I am proud of you for all te hard training in spite of the numerous setbacks and bumps in the road. ( no pun intended) Only a marathoner understands the amount of mental and physical effort it requires to make it to that start line on race morning. I guess the next best thing to me running this race is watching you make it after ALL the HARD work. Congrats and BE carefull. You know the pitfalls of the final weeks
training.
I Love ya!!!!!
Dad!!
Yea, you know it. As they say, in a marathon pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional...and us marathoners opt to suffer!!!! Bring it on! Excited to have everyone up here for the big day...you'll run it again too :)
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