20 mile training run... check!

Yup. I did that shit! I think I may actually be ready for the marathon is just over 2 weeks! Whoa, never thought I'd ever say that! Here's how it went down, in case you're interested (although I'm sure you couldn't care less!)


6:30am - roll outa bed and make some coffee before I have to go to the Y and stand in line for free family Friday... it was my turn this month.


7:45am - woo hoo, I was able to score Feb. 14th (vday date night baby, and with an extra hour, woot woot!), head home to get ready to run.


8:00am - eat a piece of toast with PB and half a banana, get water bottle and shot bloks ready to go.


8:30am - hit up the restroom and put my running clothes on. the weather is AMAZING today!

9:00am - head out the door to stretch and wait for the Garmin (aka my running buddy) to find a signal.

9:13am - Start- Bam, here we go! I head out down to the trail behind my house, but because of the golf course, I have to go the long way around and it actually takes about a mile and a half to get to the big trail. Then I take off towards the end of the trail, where I plan to then turn around and head straight on to the other end of the trail and back again. Around mile 7, I was getting a little hot and decided to take my pullover off and tie it around my waist. At this point I am making really good time, averaging about 10:45, which is exactly where I was trying to stay (my goal was to keep the whole run under 11 min miles, and too either get negative splits or keep them all relatively the same pace throughout).

At 10.5 miles I had made it to the beginning of the trail (which also happens to be at the YMCA, where the hubs and kids were). I ran inside to pee, and then jumped on the treadmill for 2 miles (so that I could just run straight home from there). After that I stretched a little bit, refilled my water bottle and threw a lemon lime nuun tab in, and was feeling pretty good! I set out on the trail again. I got really pumped once I reached 14 miles and could not wipe the smile off my face, b/c I had just ran further then I ever had before! The jams were pumpin', the weather was awesome, and I was feeling pretty good, no real aches or pains or cramps lawd knows I've had my fair share of shit-uations, nahmean?!

Around mile 16 I started thinking to myself... "who ever thought running this long was a good idea?! This sucks! I am never running a marathon again!"

Yes. This. ALLLLL of this!

... let me just say training all by yourself with no running buddies suuuuuuuucks. But alas, none of my friends are dumb enough to take on such a challenge. Seriously, I started to feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway, but instead of a volleyball named Wilson, I had a watch named Garmin that I had conversations with!

  = 

The only things getting me through those last few miles was knowing I was in the home stretch, but I was also terrified because I knew the last mile and a half were all uphill! Yuck! I was still managing to avg around 10:42-10:50 pace as I tuned off the trail to head home. I had never stopped running (except to pee and stretch at the halfway point) and I wasn't about to walk the last mile, I knew I would have to dig deep. I took my last shot blok and started hoofin' it up the hill. It is very possible that my walk would have been faster then the hobalong jog business I was doing, but I didn't care, I was all "I can't stop, and I won't stop!" and "who gunna stop me, huh!" - channeling my inner Miley and Kanye to just.keep.going.

Finally, I made it up the hill and I knew the quarter mile home was relatively flat, and I made an attempt to go as fast as I could and finish strong, although my body was pretty well spent, and I think I topped out at 10:30 (but felt like I was going much faster than that!) Finally, I rounded the corner and could see my house! I looked down and saw that I was going to be just shy of 20 miles, but I did not give 2 shits - f'ing close enough, right?! (it was 19.3 if you must know, but I rounded that shit up and added a little more time) Jason was in the driveway and I stopped the Garmin and threw my hands in the air and said "OMG I F*CKIN' DID IT!" at which point J told me to take my headphones off because I was talking wayyyyy too loud - oops! Sorry new neighbors, I promise I'm classier than that yeah right.

So yeah, BAM! almost 20 miles in 3:34. Man am I glad it's over! And the crazy thing? I felt GREAT! I took an nice ice bath ugh I hate those! followed by a steaming hot shower, threw on some compression calf sleeves, comfy clothes, and shoved a hamburger and French fries in my pie hole and attempted to take a nap. Yeah, the nap didn't happen thanks Emma. We had a sitter coming that night so that we could go out, and J was very concerned that would not be able to hang, since I was pretty much done-zo after all my other long runs/halves, but I stretched a bunch, drank some coffee felt AWESOME for the rest of the night! Woop! I think I crawled into bed around 12:30 with no Tylenol or anything like that. I was pretty nervous that I would not be able to move come Sunday morning, but imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning and could actually walk like a normal human being?! Holy crap! Are you kiddin' me right now?! How is this remotely possible?? Amazing. Just absolutely amazing. I have no explanation, I just know that I never once felt sore or overly exhausted after that run.


Due to the wonderful winter weather we received on Tuesday, I was not able to get my 5 mile run in, and I let other life stuff get in the way on Wednesday, so I did get my 10 miles in then either, but I was able to get 5 in yesterday (speed work on the treadmill - 47:15 - pretty pumped about that). Now I have 12 on tap for tomorrow, 8 next week and then the big day. Can I just tell you that I am so sick of running?! Ugh! for reals, I cannot wait to take a nice long vacation from running!

Anywho... My goal is to finish the marathon in under 5 hours, ideally in the neighborhood of 4:45, but we shall see :) My hubs reminded me that either way it will be a PR :) Love that man! Pretty sure this will be a one and done for me - nothankyouverymuch! I think I will stick with the half crazy folks from here on out! So yeah, I'm kinda proud of myself, and am constantly amazed at how far I've come, I just really hope that my race day goes as well as this 20 mile run did!

Happy Friday y'all!

-Candice