Oh yeah, I rocked 20 miles!

Ok, so I got my 20 miles in on Saturday!! Being that my 18 mile run 2 weeks ago had not gone well, and I hadn’t run all week due to night meetings for work, I was a little nervous. Not to mention we lost our spring weather and it was in the 30’s and VERY windy for our start! But I made my self stay positive and tried not to think about how long 20 miles really is. One nice thing about starting our runs at 6:30 am is that we get to see the sunrise, so that was a nice way to start off the run. We were in residential neighborhoods for most of the first 5 miles, then we went through Ironwoods Park for about a mile and a half, before getting back into more neighborhoods. The 20 mile turn around point was at about 135th & Roe…..not too far from our starting point at 135th & Metcalf. It was a little tempting to just take 135th back over to where my car was :) But I knew I needed to stick it out. I was feeling really good up to about mile 13, and then my IT band started bugging me. My left side has been giving me problems, and this time it was my right side. Go figure! I knew that last time I had really done myself in with the negative thinking, so I just focused on staying positive. As cheesy as it is, I really love motivational quotes, so I kept a few of my favorites going through my head to drown out the discomfort in my hip and knee. And that’s all it was, discomfort, not pain.

A little before the turn around point, the two girls I was running with ended up getting ahead of me, so I was running by myself, and with no music. I knew I needed to keep my own pace, so I didn’t mind letting them go. By the time I got back to Ironwoods Park, I was glad to find a port-a-john because I’d been making good use of the Gatorade at the aid stations. As I got back into the neighborhoods, I caught up with another girl who was doing 20 miles, and we finished out the last few miles together. We were both pretty beat by that point, but keeping up a conversation really helps the miles go by faster. It took me 4:25 to finish the whole thing, which is a little over a minute/mile slower than my goal pace. But, I’ve gotta figure in the time I spent at the aid stations, and my pee stop. My second half was only about 5 minutes slower than my first, so I didn’t slow down TOO much. AND, the blistering on my feet was minimal! No more huge pinky toe blisters! I was pretty darn sore after that run, but I’m definitely feeling a lot more confident for Lincoln. 20 miles will be at the turn around point on the out and back portion of the marathon course, and I know I can always make it back to the start after I turn around. I don’t even think being DFL would bother me, I’ll just be happy to finish!