I have heard so much about the dreaded yet epic 20 mile training run from friends, from reading running blogs, from training books that I have to say I was nervous and a little worried about my ability to complete it upright! Everyone says that it's a mind game and given that my last 18 miler was horrible, my mind was in a whirl all week!
But guess what?
It could not have been a better run! And even better, I know why. I took it SLOW!! Yes, my very slow pace kept me on the road longer, but it worked. I finished feeling great and knowing that I could have done another 6 miles! How cool it that!
My friend Sharla and I started at 4am... well, you can see from runkeeper that the official start time was 4:06AM.
It's pretty nuts, I'd would NEVER get up at 3:45 for work, to go anywhere or do anything... but running well sure! We started out and got to see some of the teenage/college kids coming home. Scary to be on the road with people who have been up partying all night!
It was low 70's with 70% humidity, but at this point in the year, that feels cool-ish.
At mile 4.5 we picked up some more friends at the park and continued on.
At mile 8 we dropped off a friend.
At mile 13, the winds changed, it got cool and started sprinkling. It was so nice. I'm guessing the temperature dropped 10 degrees!
At mile 15 we dropped off another friend and picked up more friends.. fresh legs are always welcome!
At mile 18.5 it was just us again.
At mile 19, we decided to kick it in gear and finish well by conquering "splashville hill" a steep grassy hill at our city park. We did it!
And at Mile 20, we knew that if it had been race day, we would have conquered that too!
What a feeling!
Here we are at the end of the run. For just having run 20 miles we look fantastic!
So what do I do for the next few weeks. TAPER! My training plan calls it Sharpening. But nonetheless, a little less mileage on the weekends.
I am really getting excited about the Abilene Marathon now!
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