Road to 26.2
Monday, January 27th- 2 weeks, 5 days until that big ass race
Woooooooooo. I ran 20 miles on Friday, four days after I PR’d a half marathon. Y’all, if we give ourselves a chance, we will outperform what we initially thought. If you walked up to me and told me that I would be capable of doing that, I would tell you to go home ma’am, you’re drunk.
You’re stronger than the excuses, the reasons that your brain gives you to stop, even the legitimate ones. You’re still stronger than all of that and can keep going to achieve some pretty bad ass shit!
I was a bit nervous about this run, it was my first long one completely by myself in the city. A very well-meaning family member got in my head about my safety, and I let that worry rattle around in my head all week. Once I was out there, it all worked out and I didn’t even feel uncomfortable, I was very safe the entire time. I will say, it did give me some peace of mind knowing that I had two friends tracking me on Life360, so at the very worst, they would be able to send the police to the right location. Kidding! Mostly.
Ok, let’s do this run recap!
I started the run at about 10:30am on Friday morning. I had waited a little longer to start because it was cold, as it turned out, I did not need to worry about that at all. I ran about a quarter of a mile, and shucked my long sleeve shirt, I knew it was going to be warmer than I anticipated. I had plenty of salt pills, refillable water bottles on my hydration belt, and knew that there were many water fountains on the trail.
All was going well for the first few miles, at about mile 6, I decided to fuel up. I have had some trouble in the past in waiting too long to fuel and then not feeling well and not having enough energy. My fuel is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on gluten free bread, and for some reason I only brought half today. By mile 7, I was out of fuel, that meant that I was pretty concerned with getting in enough water. My plan was to swing by my car at mile 10, add water if I needed, change socks if needed. I had more fuel in the car, but none of it was food that I had tested on runs so I decided to just not fuel and keep going for the last half of the run.
I hit a pretty big wall at mile 12.5, I sat down on a bench, and went through all the reasons that I should go back to my car and leave. I was out of fuel with a lot of miles left, I had some fantastic cramps, it was warm out, my pace was very slow….so I decided to just go to mile 13. Then I decided to go to mile 14. Then 15. And so on for the rest of the miles! I called a few of my friends and fam, I listened to a few true crime podcasts, and I muttered my mantras under my breath (and aloud) for the rest of the run!
I did stop at every single water fountain and bathroom, so that added a lot of time on my feet, and I slowed my pace a lot for the last few miles. I stayed hydrated, and ate as soon as I got in my car.
I was bruised, blistered, sweaty, and dirty but that big bitch of a run was done. I did it and persevered when it was really hard. I honestly cannot even believe I still ran 20 dang miles!
We can do hard things! Even when we are sure we can’t do it! We have been made capable and ready! Tomorrow isn’t promised, so don’t let some silly thought hold you back from enjoying and kicking ass today!
Xo,
Ellie
Ellie Schreiner's Blog 