22 miles

22 mile runs havent generally been my favorite. 22 miles is far. i dont even like driving that far, let alone running. but, it has to be done (well i guess technically it really doesnt have to be done... but i figured that it would be more for my benefit with marathon #7 coming right up, that i should get in some more miles. these 20-30  mile weeks, although a great rest for my legs, have not done well for my mind. sure i have a fairly solid base built up from the past 4 months of omgrunningALLTHETIMEsomanymiles, but not so much lately.

so i needed a long run, and i needed it to go well.

(the last 22 miler before marathon #5 went peachy, incase you all forgot.)

dead.

last saturday morning, sarah and i took off early to get the miles done. were both really smart (hint: nope, not so smart) and neither of us planned out where we wanted to run. first mistake. about a half hour before running our plan was tentatively 88 laps around the local high school track. read: were stupid.

about a mile into the run (not on the track, were smart enough to decide that wasnt a good idea) we were both a hot sweaty mess in the 987% humidity. yay. isnt it supposed to be fall yet? mentally neither of us were prepared, physically our bodies were saying "what is wrong with you, turn around, this sucks, you should be sleeping, dont you have a puppy to tend to?"

7 miles done. and i did another 3 when i got home, which was another stupid idea since the humidity was still 4836%. barf. fail. so much for the long run.

fast forward to monday. well, actually backtrack to about 5 miles into the run on saturday when sarah texted her friend to see if she could babysit her son for a few hours on monday morning so we could try this again. of course neither of us knew what the weather was going to be like monday either, but i guess we would take that chance. so ok, back to monday morning. woke up to 50 degrees and 60% humidity (!!!!) it was COLD! my plan of a skirt and tshirt went out the door, compression capris and a long sleeve shirt were dragged out from the back of the closet. i had everything laid out and ready to go. i had gotten up early to have something to eat, drink some coffee, and stretch (in the form of chasing a 9 week old puppy around the back yard... so more of a warm up i suppose). i remembered all my necessities. everything seemed to be falling into place much better than saturday. sarah and i drove out to the maine marathon course so that our scenery was different than our normal westbrook routine. we've done a lot of running this year and the monotony was killing us both. at mile 6 i felt like we had only been running a mile. there was shade all along the course, and we took it easy on the hills. (side note: although ill tell everyone that will listen that i hate this marathon course, its only because its failed me time after time after time. i actually love this course, its truly beautiful.)

as is the norm between us, we talked and talked and talked. until both of us just stopped. and we ran in silence, just our feet hitting the pavement. this is one of the greatest things about our relationship... the ability to just run together, we dont need to keep each other company, we know we have each other right beside us. but it didnt stop my from trying to sing a few times, stopping here and there to stretch, and screaming at the blonde driving the saab who almost hit us as she swerved out of the break down lane while she was texting, seeing us at the very last moment.

im not sure when i noticed, but shortly after mile 13 i could tell something was not right with sarah. we were slowing down a little and her stride looked different. although i asked what was wrong, she wouldnt admit her leg pain. but i knew it was there. ive been where she is, and its not easy mentally or physically. at mile 14 we stopped at a convenient store to stretch and took this little gem for meg:

im at a paaaaaaaayphone

unfortunately at mile 15ish, sarahs leg had had enough. we were still a little over 4 miles from the car so i told her to give me her keys and i would get back to her as soon as i could (but give me at least 45 minutes, im not superwoman!) i told her no more running on it, walk if you can but sit and rest it and ill be back. i was running out of water and i knew there was a store i could stop at to refill but i didnt want to waste any time. at times i was doing 7:50s. i was crushing the back miles of this course like i never have before, just needing to get back to her car. when i got back to her car i was just over 19, so i finished the final 3 miles at home. i felt like my hydration (new 22oz handheld with 1/2 water, 1/2 gatorade) and fuel (peanut butter gu, sports jelly bean things, and honey stinger chocolate waffle) were right on. the espresso love gu that i have lived off of for the past year made me want to be sick so i only had a small amount of that before throwing it away. my plan is going to be to bring all of this for the race and take a cup of water at the aid stations. i may also try a salt pill or two, depending on how i feel.

22 miles: 3:24:27 (average pace: 9:17)

final miles:

16- 8:31

17- 8:30

18- 8:24

19- 8:13

20- 8:30

21- 8:26

22- 8:37

as all hope had been lost leading up to this run (me? dramatic? who would have thought...), i think i might survive marathon #7 after all. but as i have found out the hard way, no matter how your training goes, anything can happen on race day.