20 down

Hey guys!! First of all, big congrats to Yvonne on the birth of their future runner girl, to Shore Turtle for a great 5K finish, to Redhead Fangirl for her first 5K and to TriSaraTops - our newest Ironman!! I can't imagine competing for 15 hours and all the physical and mental endurance that would take during the BEST of weather conditions, not to mention on a day like they had yesterday in Wisconsin. I am in **awe**.

So, Saturday was my flat 20-miler, my first 20-miler of this training cycle. I really wasn't especially excited about it, and particularly since I'd be running it alone. I picked up a burrito the night before for a carbo load and set the alarm for 6 am. I just wasn't feeling 6 am, so when the alarm went off I reset it for 6:30. Slightly better but still atrocious. I ate a bagel and drove over to Shelby Park. I knew I'd need more water than my 6-bottle belt holds, so I decided to drive over so I could have extras. When I pulled in the lot was full of cars so I was really glad I'd have lots of eye candy, or at least entertainment. Just as my Garmin was trying to figure out where I was I got a text from Brent wishing me luck. Yeah!! Finally Garmin figured out I was a measly 1.5 miles from where I last ran and I was off. Slow and easy to get started, and in the beginning I thought "Nice, there's a little chill in the air!". It had rained the night before so it was still really foggy and the clouds were nice and thick. That didn't last long.... I headed out on the big 7.5 mile out and back loop and saw lots of other runners and walkers, as the morning wore on the cyclists increased and the runners started decreasing. And then the clouds started burning off and the humidity started making an appearance. I really wasn't paying much attention to my pace, I know my flat long runs are going to be very different than the marathon, and there's no way I can run marathon pace on the flats because I would just feel like I was crawling. I just kept a slow and steady pace, comfortable to the point where I would be able to hold a conversation if there was someone to talk to. I saw a few of my splits, and it seemed like they were all around 9:30, which was good but I knew I'd slow down later. I finished the first loop and then headed out around the lake (avoiding two dogs who were about to attack each other) and around past the golf course and up to the main entrance. A training group was packing it up and heading out as I made it back to my car around 12 miles to change out my bottles. I pulled out all new frozen bottles and took a swig of cold water. YEAH! I was pretty sure I'd worked it out to where I could do one more 7.5 loop and be done for the day, so once again I headed back out on the greenway. I was doing really well until around mile 15 when the heat was becoming such a pain. The temperature had gone from 70 degrees to 83 degrees while I was running. WAY too big of a swing! Around mile 15 I saw a tortoise. We see them a lot there (the greenway is next to the river) and last time we even saw a tortoise and a hare! But this time I SWEAR the turtle smiled at me. And then said he was from New Jersey. Ok, I made up the part about New Jersey but I really think the turtle smiled at me. I just kept moving, telling myself it was almost over. And I knew I HAD to keep going because no one was going to rescue me, and I had to make it back to the car one way or another. So I started promising myself all sorts of things-ice cream, pastries, a new car. Then I would tell myself there's NO WAY I can give up during Pretty Vegas - that's a dancin' song. I made it back to my car at 19.5 miles and just did parking lot laps to make it to 20 even. There was no way I was heading away from my massive car and back out into the park!! When I was finished I looked at my splits and nearly passed out!! I've never done a long run that quickly - I can do a half at a much faster pace but there's a huge difference in 13 miles and 20 miles! Here's the stats:

Total Run: 20 miles 3:09:03 avg pace 9:27/mile
Mile 1:9:52
Mile 2:9:28
Mile 3:9:23
Mile 4:9:13
Mile 5:9:12
Mile 6:9:23
Mile 7:9:28
Mile 8:9:23
Mile 9:9:35
Mile 10:9:29
Mile 11:9:44
Mile 12:9:40
Mile 13:9:31
Mile 14:9:34
Mile 15:9:27
Mile 16:9:20
Mile 17:9:17
Mile 18:9:24
Mile 19:9:18
Mile 20:9:11

I am strangely consistent, and I can't believe some of my fastest miles were the last ones. I felt like I was crawling. BUT, I'll take it.

For some strange reason I am dying to run another marathon. I'm thinking about this one in October. It's about 2.5 hours away and looks super cute. All of the townspeople make signs with your name on it and come out and cheer for you!! How cool is that? Anyway, I have a strange fascination with distance. I think it's much more intriguing to me than shorter, faster runs. A half is my fave distance to race. And, since I am not a morning bird I don't think it's always "worth" my time to get up early for a short race!

Anyway, that's it for now! More about the rest of the weekend later!!