Marathon Training - Week 11

I stink at blogging, or more specifically, the consistency of blogging.

I freaked out about running 16 miles. And then never said how it ended up. I know you've been waiting on the edge of your seat.

Sarcasm aside. I made it. Getting up at 4:15 on vacation to meet a perfect stranger (through a local running club) to run through the PITCH black streets of the Outer Banks to run 16 miles.

Thank goodness for angels, because that is what the wonderful woman, K, is after hosting me for this run. After we started, she told me that this was a recovery run after her 50 km race last week.

Huh? Say what? What have I gotten myself into?

Well, she was awesome. We had great conversation, got to see the sun rise, and easily tackled the first 8 miles. She started not feeling so great shortly before 10, but stuck it out with me for 12.5 before making sure I knew where to go for the rest. She was inspiring and I'm thankful to have met her.

So, this is where I'm supposed to tell you it was rainbows and unicorns for the last 3.5. It was not. The humidity struck and I ran out of water. But in the end, it was done. I even clocked 9:08 for the last mile because I was like a horse who could smell the barn. All I really wanted to smell was bacon because I was also hungry.

I might have even called my sister to make sure my family had left me some bacon and eggs for breakfast before coming home. And there may have been a threat involved if it was gone when I got there.

Here's the sweaty selfie with a canal backdrop that made we want to jump in or maybe just sit for a while in those bright chairs.

I couldn't wait to take a picture before chomping down, and yes that is a cran-pomegranate mimosa, and it was AWESOME. And I might have washed this all down with sour cream and onion Pringles after this. Guess I needed some salt.

And the biggest surprise of all was that I felt pretty good the next day. Packing the car with lots of stairs probably helped to work the soreness out.

So, maybe I can do this marathon thing. This run made up for the sucky 10 miler last week and Tuesday's sweatfest.

Week 11 is in the books. No cross-training happened, but longest run yet did.

 

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