Remember When

I remember the first time I ran 6 miles, I was pretty amazed. Me. run 6 miles? sheesh. that NEVER would have happened one or two years ago.

Than I had to run 9 miles. I remember dreading it. I remember thinking that 9 miles was a long run. But I've since learned or realized that 20 miles is a lot longer than 9 miles.

woot woot, yup, that's right.

20. miles. on foot.

after two horrible super long runs (kept hitting walls at the 15ish mile point), I made it through to 20.

not to say it was easy. I had to wake up before the crack of dawn. 3 miles into the run I realized I needed to use the bathroom so it was a quick run BACK home into the house before finishing mile 4. Somewhere around mile 14 I realized I was going to make it through. Not sure if it was the slightly larger breakfast, combination of water & and watered down Gatorade in the fuel belt, or the bits of Gu I snacked on (didn't eat all the Gu in the packets all the time). It could have been the new route (hello corn fields!). It also could have been the husband who found me near mile 15, providing cheer & encouragement.

I did nearly crash. for some reason I thought mile 16 was really mile 17 and the fact that I had FOUR more miles (not 3) was almost too much to bear. My last two miles were slow and painful. I probably should have opened another Gu around mile 18, but I just didn't want ANOTHER gu, especially since I was so close to home.

Immediately after the run it hurt to walk. it hurt to sit down & stretch. Within thirty minutes I started the bath and this time, instead of just sitting in cold water, we put a bag of ice in the tub. Windows were open. I can only imagine what the neighbors thought.

Sometimes I have to remind myself why I'm doing this. Still not totally sure. Marathon by 30 will probably guarantee arthritis by 30. That being said, at least I'll have good legs ;)