Saturday, September 18, 2010

Survived, barely….

This morning I got up at 5:15 AM so I could run 20 miles.

RED and I signed up for the JBLM 1/2 Marathon a few weeks ago. We decided to go early and run 7 miles before the race. We started running by 6:45 AM and the race start was 8. So we went around the airfield (it was on Post) and past the starting point for another mile and a half until we had to turn around in order to make it to the start. We arrived at the start with about 10 min to spare and G.Money registered about 6.7 miles. This meant I would have to make some distance up at the end of the half.

I changed shoes and socks and put some extra body glide on a hot spot that was developing. This is what it looked like after 20 miles:

A STUPID blood blister.

Sep 18 2010 001 RED and I decided to do this half marathon as part of our 20 miler because we thought it would be a good idea to have water stops and people around us to keep us motivated. The race advertised water stops every 2 miles so in our transition from the 7 mile warm up to the 13.1 I put my Nathan handheld water bottle in the car. I didn’t want to bother with it. Our first water stop was mile 3.5 ish (10.5 miles for us). I was pretty thirsty by then. The next water stop was not until mile 7 (or 14 for us). I was DYING. I was considering licking pine needles since they were glistening with left-over rain water. It was awful. I could feel my body fatiguing and becoming seriously sluggish. We finally came up on the water stop. They were behind filling cups so we had to stand and wait for a good half a minute. I wanted more but there were other runners who hadn’t had any yet. I asked where we could expect the next one: “uh….about mile 10.” Great. 3 miles until I could get another drink.

It really wasn't hot. It was about 64 degrees maybe, but it was humid and the sun was shining. Nonetheless we were thirsty. We were looking forward to mile 10 water stop before this mile 7 one was out of sight. We slowed our pace and did a quick inventory check and found that we both were hurting. My leg, left knee and hip was hurting. RED’s back and stomach was hurting. We were quite the pair I am sure. I wanted to wear a sign that said TODAY WE ARE RUNNING 20 MILES. Either way we ran and did some walking too…

Mile 10 (17 for us…) came and we passed the mile marker with no water stop in site. I saw a Jeep driving towards us with a bright, neon green shirt shining through the window. I flagged it to stop and I asked the driver, “Is there a water stop soon?” He told us it was about half a mile away. In the front passenger seat was a poor runner who looked close to death. RED told him “There aren’t enough water stops on this course.” and he replied, “Yeah, someone else said that too.” Well, DUH. We finally came to the next stop at about 10.5 miles (mind you for us it was 17.5 miles). I had three cups of water. As we ran on we had to move out of the way for about 4 emergency vehicles. No surprise there. I hoped I hadn’t slowed down the guy who had the casualty in the front seat.

RED and I stuck together until about mile 18ish. She was teetering on serious dehydration and having stomach aches along with back aches. I just wanted to be finished. She gave me a Good Game Bootie Smack and I ran on.

I ran up on the next water stop at around mile 12 (mile 19). What in the world? I ran to the finish. Finally. BUT I had to run another quarter mile to hit 20. There was no way I was going to stop at 19.74 miles. So I turned and ran back toward the course to find RED. By the time I hit 20 I heard my name and turned to see she was already done! Yay!! So I turned and jogged back to meet her. Finally, done for real.

Stats:

20 Miles-3:15.10 Average Pace—9:53

I’m so glad to have this run done….

I came home and took a nice long ice bath…and LB helped by splashing me….brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Sep 18 2010 013

Me after the run:

Sep 18 2010 003

Me and RED

Sep 18 2010 004

RED…isn’t she cute?

Sep 18 2010 002

24 comments:

  1. Way to get it all done! Sorry bout the nasty blister and the lack of water!

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  2. Is that dark polish on your toenails or are they black from the running????

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  3. Pam, totally black toe nail polish! Thank goodness I haven't lost any nails...yet! Lucky I guess! =)

    Thanks Tressa!!! If it is you...or Track Coach! =)

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  4. Sounds like a tough run, way to finish it! Owwwch to the blood blister. :-(

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  5. You are amazing. GREAT JOB! Is Red doing Portland too? Sorry the run didn't go as well as you and hoped...but you did it!

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  6. you are like a Marlene I have in my back yard - she does 10ks and halfs to fit into her marathon training and she runs 7 and 8 mile "warm-ups" before.

    You guys are all insane - I doubt I will every be this crazy about running

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  7. Sorry that the race sucked but good for you for doing 20 miles. You two look great after having run for over 3 hours!

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  8. Okay, good! haha I was worried!

    See, I was so worried about your toenails that I forgot to congratulate you on your run!

    Congrats on getting it DONE despite the crappy circumstances!

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  9. You rock!
    Sorry you ran a race with poopy water stops, been there done that only the one we ran had NO water but I guess that is acceptable for a 5k..lol However, I would have hated it had it been my first race ever.

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  10. That was a great idea to run the 1/2 marathon. It's usually a fun and easy way to pass miles, unless of course they have inadequate water stops!! Sounds rough, but hey, you DID IT!!!

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  11. Awesome job on your run!

    Sorry about the water stops problem I ran a half last year that was not well organized and had no biffies other than at the start and finish and only 3 water stops -- one of which had run out of water by the time any one running slower than a 10 min/mile got to it. It's just really stupid on the part of organizers because it makes it so much more likely that people will need medical care.

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  12. Holy smokes... I was just wondering how to fit in my long marathon training with all the races I have scheduled. Not sure if I have the guts to pull off what you did. Bold move and you DID IT! Great job.

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  13. Wow, that is crazy about the lack of aid stations in that race. That is definitely NOT enough! I'm glad you two survived though and were able to get the 20 miles done! Woohoo!

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  14. Not enough water stations!! Glad you guys didn't get into serious dehydration trouble.

    Although all the added excitement probably helped the miles pass more quickly.

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  15. Great job..I felt the same way on my 29km run on Saturday - I look this bad/sore because I am running a loonnnngg way!

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  16. Wow! You and Red are rockstars!

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  17. i have tried to do races as part of a long run before and it just didn't work for me..now not because of lack of water that's just silly, way to pull it out!

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  18. Holy moly! Way inspirational! My first 1/2 is in three weeks and....yeah now I'm kinda scared. :) GOOD FOR YOU!

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  19. Great Job but SERIOUSLY! Who RUNS 7 miles BEFORE a half? You are crazy! This will make that little old marathon seem easy peasy!

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  20. Good golly, way to pull out a smile after that run! One word: Wow!

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  21. Bleh, being dehydrated on the run is the WORST! But, fortunately you were able to find something eventually.

    20 milers seem to be either totally awesome or totally shitty. No inbetween

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You're pretty much awesome!!

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