Sunday, May 18, 2008

10 Miles And Counting

I did my 10 mile training run on Sunday for the 20K I'm doing in two weeks. For whatever reason I was very nervous about this run. An earlier run didn't go well at all and I was concerned that I would struggle with this one as well. My trainer convinced me to meet up with her running group at 7 a.m. Saturday morning and run with them (even though she wasn't going to be there.) My alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. (ugh.) I got up, ate some breakfast, got dressed and went out to do a short run around the neighborhood. I've learned that running has a laxative effect and that for morning runs I either need to have a bathroom available about a mile into the run or simply do a quick warm up run. So off I went for a quick run around the neighborhood (now known as the "poop run".) It worked like a charm, and I was out the door to meet up with the group by 6:20 a.m.

I was also very nervous about running with this group. I'm not sure why but for whatever reason, they intimidated me. I didn't have anything to worry about because other than the pre run talk where we review the route, it's pretty much just like any other run. Everyone started spreading out, running their own pace. Except for the fact that we all started at the same time and were running the same route there really wasn't much of a group. I ended up running by myself which is what I would have done anyway so it wasn't a big deal.

The run itself went well. There were a few challenging hills but except for the two water stops where I also did an energy gel shot, I ran the whole time. The last mile was definitely hard but I did and finished in 1:54. My goal was to finish in 2 hours so I'm very pleased.

This was the last long training run until the race itself. It seems weird not to run more than 5 miles the next two weeks but I'm following the training schedule of experienced runners so I will trust them. I'm also trusting them when they say that the additional 2.4 miles will be "easy". I keep hearing that the adrenaline will keep me going. I freaking hope so!

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