20 Miles!

My students took a practice Advanced Placement test on their Friday afternoon off. It took 3 hours. I told them, "I would never run a marathon without running a 20 miler first to prove that I have the endurance. You need to do the same thing." And so I must take my own advice, and today was the day of the 20 miler before the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon.

Marta and I met at 8:00 AM at Station Road Trailhead. The weather was a perfect day: overcast and 50 degrees. We had the genius idea to break the run up into segments of 5 miles: out 2.5 and back in one direction, again in another direction, and twice in yet a different direction. It really helps me to take on the elephant one bite at a time.

Marta and I are ready and eager to get started. 

The first ten were easy. It was nice to run and chat, and the time passed pretty quickly.  The third set of five miles was still fun, but I could feel that it was becoming more difficult to maintain focus. By the last set I was pretty grumpy.  I tried to use every trick I could; for example, I scanned my body to see what felt good and what didn't. I tried to think about my form and using my glutes and my core. I concentrated on pushing off with my big toes. After a while none of this really worked, so I started swearing, something that I find stress-relieving. Poor Marta had to put up with quite a few times that I said, "I don't f--ing want to do this anymore!" She remained calm and cheerful. Marta, you are a rock. You had better think long and hard about whether you actually want to run with me at the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon because today I was holding back.

We finished strong.

I am alive, and we still like each other.  I'm pretty sure.

As we were recovering in the shade of the depot, I heard someone call my name, and lo and behold, it was Pam and Steve! I'm sure you remember that Pam is also a Cleveland Marathon Ambassador, and Steve is a pacer. I invited them to the party at my car that definitely involved Muscle Milk and POSSIBLY involved some Fat Tire to celebrate.

Pam always looks fresh as a daisy. I really hate her. I look like I'm having a gas attack.

I don't feel terrible. I was still able to come home to the mountain of laundry at my house AND scrub my son's room (which was disgusting--you don't even want to know). Am I ready for the marathon? I hope so. I think I did a good job, even though I was slower than I would have liked. Hopefully I'll do a better job of maintaining my pace during the race. I'm trying not to think about race day; I'm just going to put my trust in my training.

Want to join me? You still have time to sign up: online registration is back! You can use my code, SICLE10, to get a 10% discount on any of the races. You can even use it if you sign up at the expo! Speaking of the expo, I'll be there on Saturday from 3-6 at the information booth. Come talk to me!

Until then, run happy, Peeps!

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