Uncharted territory

Today was "the big day" for Jessica and me. Since we're both marathon virgins, anything over 13.1 miles was uncharted territory for us--and today was a scheduled 15 mile run. I was SO nervous.

After the disaster of our 13 mile run a couple of weeks ago, I was really dreading today's run ever since. I was worried about stomach cramps and messing up my feet. I think I solved both of those problems--the stomach cramps were caused from the Nuun, which I will never drink again, and I had mild tendonitis in my feet because my shoes had too many miles on them. So I started using my new shoes, and haven't had problems since.

Anyway, knowing that today was a big deal, I prepared accordingly. I had pasta for dinner last night, and had a salty snack before bed (pretzels and Goldfish). I woke up at 5 to drink a quart of water. I had oat bran with a banana, peanut butter, and milk for breakfast a couple of hours before the run. I packed two packets of Gu, and my water bottle--which I added a pinch of salt to, because the Gu doesn't have much sodium. I dressed in my most comfy running clothes and headed out to meet Jessica.

We were both nervous, and we didn't make plans to go eat lunch afterward, because we assumed we'd both have stomach cramps and just want to head home. We agreed to run a slow pace, because we're running a half-marathon race on Sunday, and we want to feel good for that.

I had plugged our race times into the McMillan pace calculator to determine our best training pace for a long run, and mine was 10:30-11:30 min/mile; Jessica's was 11:30-12:30 min/mi. So we agreed to keep our pace as close to 11:30 as possible.

When we first set out, it felt like we were going TOO slow, but I knew I didn't want to step up the pace because I didn't want to get cramps later. I didn't look at the Garmin much. We did a different route today, going through three different cities, and running past the car at mile 9. Jessica brought water to refill our water bottles if needed.

We actually saw quite a few people out walking or biking, and a couple of people running. I wanted to tell everyone, "We're running 15 MILES today!!" but I kept it to myself ;)

It was perfect weather for running--cool and overcast. I had my chocolate Gu at mile 6. Still no tummy troubles. When we hit the halfway point, I was still feeling really good, and started to think that maybe I'd make it through the run okay after all. We took a spontaneous small detour to go through a park, and then we ended up back at the car at mile 9.5 ish. Both of us were feeling really good at that point, and we each had half a bottle of water left, so we didn't even stop at the car.

We headed into the Metropark for the last 5 miles. There was fog everywhere, and it was really fun running surrounded by fog. I started to feel fatigued so I had my peanut butter Gu. My legs were starting to ache at about mile 12, but I didn't feel any real pain. At 12.25, we turned around and started making our way back to the car. We both got really excited when we hit 13.1 and kept going.

When my Garmin beeped at mile 14, I was excited with just one mile to go--and my Garmin has never seen anything above 13.1. At 14.5, I started smiling while running, because I knew we were actually going to DO IT. We never even stopped (or walked), the entire time we were running! We got back to the car and I heard the beep for mile 15. We both felt GREAT--no tummy problems, no real pain, just a little stiff and achy, but nothing unusual. We used the self-timer on my camera to get a picture of us in our sweaty glory:

15 miles, run and done.

Jessica's hard to miss with all that neon. I love her shoes!

 We were both feeling so good after the run that we decided to go to La Pita for lunch. La Pita is our favorite choice because it's not greasy or salty or any of the other qualities that restaurant food usually has. I got my usual, the chicken kabob (here's last week's pic of the same food--sorry I'm not too adventurous when it comes to La Pita):

I made sure not to eat too much this time, despite the fact that I was starving. I was wolfing down the pita bread and garlic sauce when I forced myself to slow down. And then, before I felt full, I stopped eating to avoid getting that horrible "too full" feeling. I felt very satisfied, but by no means FULL.

I just got home, and I'm actually feeling so good that I might take the kids to get ice cream tonight. There is a dairy farm not too far from here, so I think we'll go there and get the good stuff! The ice cream shop that is just a couple of miles from my house re-opened for the season, and I have made a vow not to go there at ALL this year. Last year, that is how I gained 15 pounds over the summer--stupid Reese cup flurries! If I want ice cream, I'll have to drive a lot farther to get it.

Damn, I feel good right now!