16 miles!

Welcome back everyone! Thanks for stopping in and reading about my running journey again. Yesterday was a big day, and a very very hard run at that. I ran a full 16 miles...well 15 2/3, but I'll explain why in a second!

So we started off, bright and early at 8:00am, it was a pretty cool morning but perfect for a long run. I ran with Don, a friend of Kyle and mine, for the first mile and a half. He is a much faster runner than I am so I told him to go on ahead, I didn't want to slow him down.

After that, I was on my own for another 3 miles. It was nice, I was just chugging along at a comfortable pace, no pain, no problems. Then at about mile 4.5, one of my coaches caught up to me from the other direction and ran with me until mile marker 6. It was nice to have company for a little bit because we talked about a lot of stuff and it helped to take running off my mind. Before I knew it, we were at the second water stop (at mile marker 6). Plus, our trail for the day took us through some pretty nice neighborhoods and Coach and I talked about how nice it would be to live in those houses we can't afford. Although, most of them had McCain/Palin signs out in front of them, so I probably wouldn't fit in anyway.

When we got to that water stop, Don had hurt his knee pretty bad, so Coach stayed behind with him, and luckily, the other 3 girls running were still refueling. So I was able ran with Sara (my friend and Don's girlfriend) for awhile. We had 4 more miles to go before we got back to our starting place, but then we still had to run out 3 more miles and come back 3 miles to get our full 16 in. It was a pretty run, running by the local wineries and their grape vines were turning fire red and golden yellow. We did have to walk up a few hills but for the most part, we did pretty well.

We made it back to the starting point in just over 2 hours. Did I forget to mention my blister? At about mile 5, I started feeling some pain in my left arch, and before I knew it, I had a pretty good size blister formed and stinging me every step of the way. When I made it back to the starting point, I stopped and taped it up, had a glass of juice, and I was on my way again. Other than the blister, I felt pretty good about the first 10 miles, however, the next 6 miles, well, those are a different story.

So Sara and I took off to finish the last 6 miles of our run. We kept telling ourselves it was no big deal and normally, 6 miles wouldn't be hard but after 10 miles, holy cow, 6 miles feels like forever! We were running, slowly, but steady, and stopping just for a little bit every mile to walk some. Our legs were starting to feel about 20 lbs heavier every step at this point. We knew the water stop to turn around was pretty close so we walked about a quarter of a mile until we found it. We filled up on water and Gatorade before heading back for the last 3 miles.

At this point, my legs were in some serious pain. It hurt to lift them every time I took a step. We tried to jog but Sara and I laughed, saying we felt like we were giving it our all but if people looked at us, they would think we were walking kind of funny. At about 2.25 miles to go, I told Sara to go ahead because it seemed she could at least jog. I on the other, I was in pain and my body didn't want to go another step. The next two miles were pretty hard- I would jog for a minute or two, walk for a minute or two and then stop and stretch, hoping to stretch out some of the pain I was feeling. It was a long process and by the last mile, I thought I was going to collapse. I started seeing spots and my knee was in some serious trouble...I thought I might have to crawl back. Luckily for me, Carol, one of my teammates was leaving the park when she saw me and must have noticed my condition when she pulled over and told me to hop in the car. Thank Goodness for Carol, she drove me back the last 1/3 of a mile- I was shaking and trebling, my body was in shock from the distance.

Thanks goodness it was over! I have learned to really love running and it was amazing what my body was able to do yesterday but I've also learned I still have a ways to go before I'm ready for my marathon because this run was seriously one of the hardest things I have ever done.

By the time I got home, I could barely walk and I was hopping around on one leg because my other knee was in so much pain. I stretched some more, took a hot shower and scheduled my very first full body massage! It was wonderful...a little painful, as she was rolling out the knots in my lower back, my thighs and my calves. She asked me if I knew what my IT band was (muscle that runs through your lower back down through your leg to your ankle area)and I said "yes" and she said "it's really tight" and I said, "oh really? my calves are giving me a lot more trouble" and her answer was "yeah, those are even tighter". Oh the glories of becoming a runner!

Well, overall, I'm still very sore from my run yesterday and although I didn't finish that last 1/3 of a mile, I did complete over 15 miles and I couldn't be more amazed! Thanks for your support!

Picture: Sara and I coming up to the 10 mile marker! woo-hoo!