17 Miles

Well that kind of sucked.

But let's back up a bit.  I have a conference this weekend and knew there would be no chance for a long run (possibly no chance for a run at all) but lucky for me it was the perfect storm: I didn't have Girls on the Run (spring break), Jordanne didn't have work (also spring break), and Lisa had a babysitter for D - so we were able to pump out a random Thursday night long run.  We met at 3pm at Soos Creek, ran to Lake Youngs, the loop, and back (this was about 11 miles) and then ran another 6 miles on Soos Creek. 

And yes, I did do it.  All 17 miles of it.  All 2 hours and 50 minutes of it.  But as I already mentioned, it kind of sucked.  How will I ever run 9 more miles?  Today I literally couldn't have taken another step, and was just chanting "don't stop don't stop" for the last 2-3 miles.  It wasn't pretty.  I didn't feel strong, I didn't feel confident, I didn't love running.  In fact, the negative creepers came in my head at the end and I was questioning all of my life decisions.  Just kidding, I was mostly just questioning my decision to run a marathon.

17 miles in 2:50:18 (AP: 10:01)

Splits (first 10): 11:05, 10:15, 9:53, 10:47, 9:59, 10:04, 10:13, 10:43, 11:12, 10:23

Splits (last 7 alone): 9:28, 9:22, 9:04, 9:14, 9:30, 9:33, 9:30

The run wasn't all bad though!  Great company, nice trails, lovely views, horses, golden retriever puppies (that Jordanne wouldn't let me steal), blue herons, etc.  

Lovely river views - see?

I wanted to feed the horses some of my gummi bears, but Lisa said I couldn't because gummi bears are made out of gelatin which is made out of horse hooves, and that would be cannibalism.  Or horse-abilism, if you will.  IS THIS TRUE?!  Is gelatin made out of HORSES?  I would hate to be forced to give up eating jello...  Am I an idiot for not knowing this?!

Then I saw this - the owners know me so well. 

Fuel Plan: I ate a fairly big dinner last night that was potato based but I could have had more I think, especially the day of the run since it was an afternoon run.  Oddly enough this was pretty much the first time EVER in my life I didn't feel hungry and didn't want to eat, and I had to force feed a hot pocket down my throat.

Fuel plan during the run involved Nuun and gummi bears.  I had eaten all of my gummi bears and my bottle of tri-berry Nuun by the time we got back to the car after the Lake Youngs part at 10 miles, so I refilled both.  But around mile 11 I felt hungry, and by mile 13 my stomach did NOT feel good.  Not the nauseous feeling I sometimes get, instead this gnawing acid feeling - like my stomach was empty and the acid was eating the lining and SO mad at me for just putting sugar in there for the past 3 hours.  Fueling fail. 

Total elevation gain of 1,121 feet.  Maybe THAT'S why I wanted to die.  There was some serious hillage, and it was mostly concentrated in the first 10 miles (the Lake Youngs part).  I mean in the whole scheme of things, compared to my 15 miler, which I thought was hilly, but felt a lot better during, was only 248 feet of elevation gain.  

You know it's hilly when the scale goes from 200-800!

After my run my husband met all of my demands including an egg sandwich, an ice bath, and super hot tea to fuel my ice bath.

I just KNEW you wanted to see another picture of my legs in an ice bath.  I knew it.  Yes those socks are mismatched.  I'm classy like that. 

I'm pretty sure he relished adding more and more ice to the bath and seeing me shake violently.  This ice bath was pure misery for the first 5 minutes or so.  Then I found out there was THREE buckets of ice in there, instead of my normal zero or one!  No wonder.  

In conclusion, 17 miles is done.  Only a few more long runs to go.  I can only hope they get easier.

Do you actually LIKE marathon training?  Do you enjoy these long runs?  Have you always liked them or did you grow to like them over time?  How do you get through them?  And do they really make gelatin out of horses?