Yesterday I ran a marathon. I should clarify. I ran 26.2 miles, but I did not run an official race. Nope, it was just a training run, the penultimate of our 50K training. I cannot believe it, our race is less than a month away!
It was a different kind of run than my other training runs have been namely because I did not run with Anna and Erin for the entire run. You see, Anna had a ceremonial ground breaking of a building at which she will be the project manager, so she had to be done running at 8:00am. Being that we don’t usually start running before 8am, there was no way we were going to get four hours and 20 minutes of running completed before 8:00am. Nosiree!
Anna came up with this plan of running two hours a day consecutively for three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I slept through my alarm on Thursday and did yoga instead at which point I knew I needed to come up with a plan of my own for this week’s long run.
After some investigation with other people training for April/May marathons, I found my friend Amy needed someone to run 20 miles with. We made a plan to meet at the YMCA at 7:30am and then I made a separate plan with Anna and Erin to meet at 6:10 to get six miles in before I met Amy.
The first 6.5 miles with Anna and Erin went well. I had been nervous about GI issues since I had one on each of my lunchtime runs during the week. They turned out to be no problem and it was nice to have a gathering point at the Y in case a toilet was needed.
Next up was my run with Amy. She is trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon (3:40 qualifying time) so she and my other friend Michelle have been running fast and doing a lot of speed work. Amy was interested in running with me because she has a hurt big toe and she wanted to go slower. Her interest in going slower is the only way I would be able to do 20 miles with her at this point because she has become quite fast!
We started out by doing Bucks Trail and then Shane’s loop. We then went over the hill to the top of Kestrel and did the Hull’s Gulch loop. (Sorry to those who do not live in Boise or who do not get out on the trails—shame on you, they are beautiful.) It was so nice up there…dry trails, clear sky, sunny, only a little windy…a truly perfect day. Once we were back at the Y, we still had 40 minutes left so we headed down by the river to run on the Greenbelt (bike path). That last 40 minutes was Tough (with a capital T) which makes complete sense because it was miles 22-26.2. I have never run this far outside of an actual marathon race and I am still a little amazed I was able to do it yesterday.
I realized something I already intrinsically knew that distance running is truly A STATE OF MIND. I could absolutely never run 26.2 miles if I was only training for a marathon. But for some reason since this time around it is an ultra, it was possible. You change your mindset, you can accomplish it. It is truly amazing what we can accomplish when we set our minds to something.
I guess I shouldn’t be talking like this quite yet as I still have another long training run and the actual race and I certainly do not want to count my chickens before they are hatched (as my mom would warn). Yesterday’s run was very much a confidence booster for me though as I now know I have fun only five miles shy of the race distance. Now it all feels totally doable. We just need to get in one more good run with a lot of downhill so we make sure our quads can take the gradual decline of the 31 mile distance. I don’t think that we need to go any longer than I did yesterday though as it is not necessary to run the actual distance before a long race like this.
To aid with recovery, I made a strong attempt to stay ultra hydrated after the run by drinking a quart an hour. I also followed some recovery advice I saw on twitter to eat a meal full of carbohydrates within 15 minutes of finishing a long run. Both practices made a big difference as I really feel good today. The other piece of advice I would share with you that Runners World has not yet figured out is that cookies taste like they are sent from heaven after running that far and you really should eat at least half of your age in them. I had a major cookie binge and after running that far have no regrets. I never lose weight when I train for long races for this very reason.
Do any of you have any other training, race prep, packing, nutrition advice I should try out on the last long run and potentially do on race day? This whole process is a big experiment so I am always looking for new ways of doing things.
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I like to hydrate while running with “Super Diva Juice”. My own special blend of half-strength Gatorade and half-strength electrolyte replacement. Works better than water for me.
That is so impressive. Wow.
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You sound like you are doing great. Running like all endeavors truly is a state of mind. Thanks for sharing.
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