20 miles, F-yeah!

Disclaimer: I'm about to swear. If you're easily offended by four-letter words, skip a sentence or two. I just ran 20 miles. Fuck yes! By "just" I mean yesterday afternoon. I'm just now getting up the gumption to write about it. My body still hurts but I actually have enough energy to type more than a Facebook update.

I got up yesterday and it was raining. It cleared up around 1. I left my house around 1:45. It had started raining again. It was one of those light drizzle/misty kinds of rain. I thought I would tough it out and head for the lakes. I got to Calhoun, parked and started out. I was a little chilly to start. I couldn't even see across the lake. But, a couple miles in I was feeling pretty good. By mile 10 the rain had subsided. I couldn't tell if I was soaked with rain or sweat. Around 15 miles I was still feeling pretty good. Mile 17 brought some soreness to my outer quads. I pushed through it and finished up the last couple of miles. I was pretty excited considering I did it in a faster time than I did 18. Looking back, I think I was having a bad day when I did 18. When I got back to my car, I actually did a fist pump. I'm not talking a big fist pump in the air, but more of a Tiger Woods-style fist pump. Eeeks, I just compared myself to Tiger Woods. I think I need to take a shower...As you can tell, I was stoked about how well this run went.

In May, my friend, Pete suggested the Jeff Galloway method for running marathons. I have been pretty skeptical because it doesn't seem like as much of an accomplishment to walk a bunch in the Marathon. But, Hal Higdon who wrote my training plan, mentioned that he ran a 2:29 marathon and walked through all of the water/aid stations. Now don't get me wrong, I will not be running a 2:29 marathon or anything close to it. But, after these 20 miles, I'm pretty sure I'll be following Mr. Higdon's lead. Here's why:

1. I've started using Clif Shot Blocks instead of GU. This is partially because of an attempt to eradicate my tummy troubles and partially because they're much more palatable. More like eating a large fruit snack. The downside is that it's practically impossible for me to eat them while running. I'd suffocate. It takes me about 1.5 minutes to eat the three I take in at a time. On Sunday, that seemed like the perfect amount of time to get the blocks down as well as have a quick little rest.

2. The idea of running the marathon in 13, 2-mile segments seems much more feasible than 26 miles. I figure I can just get from aid station to aid station and be good.


3. Considering I don't run at any sort of incredible speed, walking won't slow me down much either.

4. I only walked 4 times during my run. I had planned to take some Shot Blocks every 4 miles so there you go, I didn't even walk that much. One of those stops was to go to the bathroom so there was some time lost there and another stop included me mixing some Gatorade for my fuel belt. That will shave off some time too.

Now, I'm not taking the full Galloway approach. I'm still not a full fan but I do appreciate the quick breaks to eat and get a drink so I don't choke. I'm pretty happy to have this 20-mile run out of the way. I've been staring it down since May and had to put it off last week due to our Mud Run. I'd post pictures of the event, but my good computer is on the fritz and is currently being serviced by the Geek Squad. I can't get the pictures from my camera to the computer.

My next long run is an 8-mile run. PIECE OF CAKE! In the meantime, have a few shorter runs to do. Awesome. I've found a great new route and wish I would have come up with it sooner. Erich takes the train to my office from his, picks up the car, and I run home. It's about 3.5 miles so it's a nice quick run. Plus I get to run across the bridge where he proposed almost 3 years ago.

I'm hoping my soreness gets better tomorrow. We're loading trucks for the Marathon, plus I'm supposed to have a short run. We'll see how that goes. I'm getting pretty stoked for this race now. Partially because I want to run it, and partially because I get to go back to South Dakota for a full week following it. I'm going to visit my new little nephew and help my sister get ready to go back to work. I can't wait!