I ran 20 bloody miles!!!

As you can tell by the title, I'm pretty excited today. Today I ran farther than I have ever run, and I actually felt pretty good while doing it. What makes this accomplishment special for me is that last Thursday I attempted to run 20, and I failed. As you can can from my blog, my attempt last week was on Thanksgiving morning while at Nags Head, and I was only able to run 16, which was 2 miles less than I had run the week before. I was VERY discouraged by my failure, and as much as I tried to tell myself after-the-fact that I could have gone ahead and run 4 more miles if I really wanted to, the fact is that I did not run 4 more - I simply quit.

I really did feel pretty good from the start of my run, and the weather was ABSOLUTELY perfect! I drove out to the country club where I was going to do my run, but I decided that since it was pretty cold to start, that I would run the first 3 miles or so down a country road and then come back to the car to drop off my warm up jacket once I had warmed up a bit. I could tell after mile 3 that I had hydrated properly, and unfortunately there are no port-a-potties or rest rooms out on country roads. However, there are woods. The problem with woods is that there are also briars. As I ran off the road into the woods I stepped directly into a puddle, that was camoflaged quite nicely by all the fallen leaves. As I jumped away from the puddle I found a beautiful briar patch, or maybe it found me. I could not believe how scratched up my leg got, and I considered showing a picture, but unfortunately on of the scratches goes up a little higher than I wish to show. Fortunately, I had not yet begun to answer nature's call. I did stop my watch during this woods venture, because it took me a couple of minutes just to find my way out safely. So I tried to wipe up the blood as best I could (good thing I was wearing black shorts and black gloves!), and off I went again. I ran the last 15 miles with a soaked left shoe and a bloody right thigh. Yeah, I felt like a total bad butt hardcore runner.

A couple of notes before I post my splits: I used a 5-hour energy shot this morning before I ran. I don't know if that contributed to anything, but I know I felt good for the run. I also used PowerBar energy gels at mile 6, 12, and 17. I kept waiting to hit the "wall," but it only came around mile 18, and it did not last long and I felt strong for the last mile. I am beginning to believe that I'll be able to do this marathon thing ;-)

Next week my long run is quite a bit shorter - only 12 miles! 2 weeks from today I'll do one more 20 mile run, and then begin the taper. I cannot believe I'm only a few weeks away from the DisneyWorld marathon!

Mi 1 - 9:02.61
Mi 2 - 9:30.51
Mi 3 - 9:54.96
Mi 4 - 9:59.38
Mi 5 - 9:57.18
Mi 6 - 9:30.06
Mi 7 - 9:48.2
Mi 8 - 9:43.67
Mi 9 - 9:55.3
Mi 10 - 9:55.41
Mi 11 - 9:56.12
Mi 12 - 9:26.73
Mi 13 - 9:43.48
Mi 14 - 9:38.19
Mi 15 - 9:53.86
Mi 16 - 9:44.66
Mi 17 - 9:41.44
Mi 18 - 9:51.21
Mi 19 - 9:59.52
Mi 20 - 9:50.47
Total = 3:15:02.96

For all my calorie counting friends, that is 2,778 calories!