HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNCLE JOHNNY! 🙂 I love you!
Previous long runs for Marathon Training:
- One Way Ticket to Double Digitland (10.0 miles)
- Eleven with the Ladies (11.0 miles)
- A Hellish Half Marathon (13.1 miles)
- Fabulous Fourteen (14.0 miles)
- Sweaty Sixteen (16.0 miles)
- Screamin’ Seventeen (17.0 miles)
- Energizing Eighteen (18.0 miles)
- Easier Eighteen (18.0 miles)
After running twenty miles this morning, I feel like I can achieve ANY goal! KARATE CHOP! (My all-black outfit made me feel like a ninja warrior.)
I was so nervous about running the big 2-0 today. Last night, I started to freak out a little bit. I know I’ve done 18.0 miles twice, but for some reason, 20.0 miles seems a LOT longer than 18.0!
I can’t believe that I struggled to run 20.0 miles in a WEEK this summer when I was coming off my knee injury, and I ran 20.0 miles in one MORNING today. Also, I cannot believe I’m the same girl that couldn’t run more than 1/4 a mile the first time she laced up her sneakers.
Running is so amazing because of the potential for improvement. I can improve, YOU can improve! Trust me. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes there are setbacks… but you can achieve any fitness goal you set your mind to! I am living proof. I was no more athletic than the average person when I started to run. I’m kind of FLOORED than I actually ran 20.0 miles this morning! 🙂
I started things off with a super filling breakfast:
I had banana oatmeal (1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup rice milk, 1/2 cup water, and 1 sliced banana), which I topped with flax, brown sugar, almonds, and coconut.
Then, I layered up. It was quite chilly this morning in Central Florida. I ran the first 2.0 miles with a sweatshirt and gloves on! Brr!
Megan picked me up at 5:30 and we drove to the beautiful Baldwin Park.
Honestly, I wish everyone could run with Megan at least once. She talks, sings, makes funny faces, and is generally the most awesome form of entertainment for 3+ hour long runs.
I think we sang “Bad Romance†by Lady Gaga in its entirety at least five times. Raw-Raw-Ra-Ra-Rah!
We started off our run in the dark and did several loops around the lake. Then we explored the rest of the neighborhood. 20.0 miles a long way to go, and I hate looping back and forth over and over again.
My game plan for this run was to take it seriously. Megan and I tend to chit chat and lose our focus on long runs, which is normally fine by me because I don’t care about my time. However, I really wanted to maintain a 10:30 overall pace for this training run.
The 20.0-miler is very important in the marathon training plan. It’s normally the longest run (I’m going to do a 22.0 miler in two weeks, though), and it’s kind of the make-it-or-break-it time. If you can do 20.0, you can do 26.2. Or that’s what they say, anyway!
We also promised each other that we would only take ONE walking break. Normally, we break about once a mile on long runs, but this time, we only walked once for 0.1 mile (and let the clock run). We also made two pit stops at the car to refill out water bottles and take Goo shots (and stopped the clocks):
I had two Goo packets and a Clementine. I should’ve eaten more, but by the end of the run, I was running out of water and was too focused on maintaining my pace.
At Mile 15.0, Megan suggested we try to do the last 5.0 miles in 50 minutes, which would squeeze us in at 3:30. I agreed, and we started to BOOK it. Check out this awesome negative split at the end:
- Distance: 20.0 miles
- Duration: 3:27:58
- Mile 1:10:54
- Mile 2: 10:39
- Mile 3: 10:43
- Mile 4: 10:47
- Mile 5: 10:23
- Mile 6: 10:21
- Mile 7: 10:22
- Mile 8: 10:35
- Mile 9: 10:47
- Mile 10: 10:47
- Mile 11: 10:43
- Mile 12: 10:38
- Mile 13: 10:35
- Mile 14: 11:26 (walking break)
- Mile 15: 10:32
- Mile 16: 9:57
- Mile 17: 9:29
- Mile 18: 9:33
- Mile 19: 9:16
- Mile 20: 8:44 (BOOOYAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!)
I felt on top of the world! I was SO proud of Megan and I! We finished fast and strong, and I know that meant a lot to the both of us. We were very relieved to be done, especially after that killer last mile.
After stumbling around the car, moaning about how sore our legs are, and taking pictures, we headed to Panera. I always feel bad for the cashier because I practically rip the bagel out of her hands. I was SOOO hungry. I cannot even describe to you how hungry I was after 20.0 miles and I felt inadequately fueled (won’t be making that mistake again!):
I had an Everything Bagel with veggie cream cheese and a Egg and Asparagus Soufflé.
For the first time, I feel like the marathon is truly attainable! I am really excited for January 10, 2010. I know 26.2 miles is a lot longer than 20.0, but at least I’m that much closer! It feels good. 🙂
Megan is coming back over, and we’re going to make more food (still hungry!) and watch Elf. My life is complete.
I LOVED this post. You are so positive and excited and it makes me want to be more sunny (and go out for a run). Because of a injury, I will be training for my first half marathon in only three months. I’m super nervous but reading this helped a lot!