Spirit of the Marathon

I spent the last two evenings watching the documentary called SPIRIT OF THE MARATHON.  I highly recommend yall watching that if you have NetFlix.  It definitely got me excited about the race!  And yes, makes me nervous too!  It's about six completely different marathon runners.  Some first timers, some professionals, and even a 60+year old man who has ran several marathons. 

Twenty-six point two miles is a flip'n long ways yall!  HA! I almost died running 17.18miles Tuesday! HAHA!  No, not really---well, kind of!!!  Let me tell you about that!!!!

So Tuesday comes around and I know I am due for a 18miler this weekend.  But the weekend is either gonna be full of baseball, Easter egg hunts, or maybe even rain.  And to add to those conflicts, I am due for more hormone injections--which means I am not supposed to run exercise for at least 5days (we will see if I can go that long???).  

So Tuesday afternoon, I take off for a 12miler!  It was PERFECT running weather.  Like 56-60 degrees and with a light breeze and plenty of sunshine.  I felt like I was slowing my pace down to a nice comfortable pace, but really I was running 9:00-9:15min pace.  This is way too fast for a marathon pace for me (half marathon pace acceptable but totally not full marathon acceptable)!!!!  But it just felt comfortable....so I kept it at that pace anyhow.

Then my husband called me and said he was coming home early and that he could take the kids to practice instead of me.  So guess what I decided to do last minute?? Yap, I decided to just keep on running.  I felt great!! Why not??  So I asked Todd to do me a favor.....to drop off a water bottle and a energy GU thingy at a stop sign so I could fuel myself properly to be able to continue running longer than I had planned.

 (FYI-You might be a redneck if you can get your spouse to drop off a water bottle at a backroad's stop sign with a GU energy pack for you.  Just say'n.)  

So at mile 10, I picked up my water bottle and GU, ran another two miles to baseball practice.  I took a 10min break at practice, then took off again.  I didn't really have it planned to get more mileage in so I didn't pre-plan my route to figure out what an additional six miles would be.  So I just took off.   I was doing fine until I hit mile 15.  That's when I realized my earlier pace was too fast and my legs were done.  I also felt a little nauseated.  But honestly, I think it was because I hadn't eaten enough.  Usually I allow myself to eat a few more carbs before running a LONG run and make sure I have had enough calories and protein intake the day before my long run.  Well, I think I was running off a shakeology protein drink, fruit, piece of a bacon and tuna---and now a GU thing.  I really needed more fuel for this kind of run!!  

The last two miles I ran at about a 10:15pace...which isn't too bad for hurting.  HA!!  I was back at my house when my total mileage was 17.18miles in 2:50min. I was super proud of myself for doing this----especially when it was not planned!! :-).  I thought of getting on the track to finish the mileage at 18miles...but I was spent!  17.18miles was good enough!!!

****Now I will tell you a little something I did learn from this.  Those GU things I was telling you about....for fueling yourself during a race. Well, I didn't know they were full of caffeine!  DUH!!!! I was up ALL NIGHT that night due to the caffeine alert it put me on!!! NOTE TO SELF: Only use GU refuel on morning runs....NOT NIGHT RUNS!!! HA!

Next weekend I am due for a 20miler!  I WILL PLAN THAT BIG RUN OUT---Complete with water stations, potty breaks, the right amount of food intake before hand, and using GU early in the day rather than later.  I will also try to take videos on this next run to share with you!!  LUCKY YOU!!!:-)

In the meantime!!! Keep on running!!! 31 days till race day!!!!!