20 miles

I recently feel like this blog has become my online running journal. But I guess that is to be expected when you train for your first marathon. Neways, here's my recap on my first 20 miler!

The run started out great, had my wonderful teammates and it was a beautiful morning. Around mile 4.5 on Grove avenue I stepped weird on some uneven sidewalk kinda twisting my right foot. Ugh, this was already my bad foot, I don't know why but on the 16 mile run it was the foot that was killing me. It also made me have a small ache in my very lower back. I think this was from when I picked up a student on Thursday afternoon and it made my back hurt in the exact same spot. For some reason that weird twist made these 2 pains come back, and at mile 4.5ish. At first the pain wasn't too bad, and there was no way I was going to stop so I just kept running. I ran into my good friend and her 2 dogs which was fun. After this we headed to the nickel bridge. I just love this area of town, so beautiful even though the hills were tough. We ran around Forest Hills, and this is where the pain in my lower back and right foot were starting to really hurt. We were at mile 14ish and I knew the Lee bridge was coming. Now I've heard so many stories and basically nightmares about this bridge. It's long, extremely windy and well just tough. All I can say is I made it. The skyline of Richmond was breathtaking, the water below was lovely, but it was tough. It was so windy and I thought it would never end. We ran up Main street where we saw our coach. I told her I needed a pep talk, anything would do. My right foot and lower back were killing me, but I didn't say anything. I just kept going. I was craving pretzels, the last 3 or 4 sags had ran out and I really just needed some salt. We made it to the Boulevard and ran up that huge hill at mile 19. Running past the stadium was mentally hard, but this run was suppose to stimulate actual raceday, and on raceday I'll have to run past the stadium as well. Good to know I can do it. By this point I was in so much pain, really just my lower back and right foot. Somehow I made it through. I wish I could say it felt as good as my 18 miler, but I honestly felt stronger on that run. I ran into that stadium, and ahhh, it was amazing. My first 20 miler.

One reason why I just love the marathon training team is because of my silver team. We know how to have fun. We had a huge party afterwards with lots of food and drinks. They even had a trash can set up with cold water and lots of ice for those who wanted to do their ice bath there. I went in and couldn't help but think, why am I doing this? My coach is giving me advil and I'm drinking a mimosa, ha! But I felt soooo much better afterwards. It was great to celebrate with my teammates, for many of us it was our first 20 miler.

I still can't believe I ran for 4 hours without stopping. Really? Who would have thought this girl who has only been running for a year would be running a marathon in just 3 weeks. I honestly have loved my time training for the marathon. But now it's time to taper!!