Runners: Open Thread

Otherwise entitled, “HOLY CRAP, I JUST RAN 19.75 MILES!”

It may not be a full marathon yet, but you marathoners can probably remember the feeling of hitting this point for the first time, so I’ll brag with abandon. The extra 3/4 mile came from miscalculation; I hit 19 miles and was still almost a mile from my car. It was raining at that point, and I sure wasn’t going to maximize my time getting drenched…

It actually held off on precipitation until I was about halfway through the run, and then it only really sprinkled until the last couple of miles! Very damp feeling the whole time, but I can handle that. Not to get too graphic, but my stomach was quite relieved to run across a PortaPotty by a park, since there aren’t too many public restrooms open before 6 in the morning along that route. Hoo, boy. But that was before I had to fuel, so I know it wasn’t the gels that I tested out today (one Hammer gel and one Honey Stinger, each after an hour). They settled nicely and kept me going. I am loving my new Amphipod belt, too! I may get a separate gel flask to add, but we’ll see.

And those nearly twenty miles? Finished in under three hours! Just barely, but still! I think I may actually break four hours in this marathon, God willing! I am feeling so stoked right now, it’s incredible. What a change from the miserable 17-miler two weeks ago! Then, I was singing funereal songs; this time, when I was finished, I was singing, “I will run through a troop and leap over a wall! Hallelujah!” (Of course, that was after my brain finally gave up on Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good,” courtesy of Barb’s podcast. Thanks, Barb; it was perfectly timed.)

I finished feeling strong, like I could have kept going and going. That’s amazing to me. My face can’t stop smiling now! I don’t know if next week’s twenty miles will feel as good, but just knowing that it can feel this good is enough to make me want more and more! Yes!