My feet still work…

I wanted to title this “I still have all my toe nails”, but that might disturb people (uh, then why am I bringing it up here?! ) and they might not understand.

So yesterday was an epic run!  Let me start from the beginning…

A local running shoe store, Big Peach, was having a clinic for the ING Marathon.  The email mentioned a few things that would be covered that sounded intriguing for this first-timer, so I decided to go.  AND, they were offering group runs after the clinic for all distances, so I jumped all over that.

The clinic was really good – I got some tips that I think will be really helpful.  And it got me excited for the race.  At the end, they introduced those who would be the pacers during the race.  Unfortunately the pacers are only for the full marathon.  What the pacers do is run the race at a certain time – and if that time is your goal, then you can run with that group.  The paces are anywhere from 3 hours to 6 hours to complete the marathon.

The two women who will be doing the 6 hour pace, were going to run for 13 miles yesterday.  I was a little nervous, since I’ve only run 9 miles before.  AND, they were doing a run/walk interval run.  The intervals were 2 minutes running, 1 minute walking, and it is ~12:30 min/mile pace.  That is slower than what I normally run, too.  HOWEVER, since I didn’t know the area and since I have never run using written directions, I decided to go with this group.  I am SO glad I did, and it was great!

I will say that early in our run, we got a little lost, and I was in between 2 sets of people in the group.  I pulled out my iPhone and looked on the map to see where we were on the map, and how it corresponded to the written directions.  The leaders were behind me, so I had time to do this.  When they caught up we talked about it, and decided to skip a couple parts of the written directions and keep going.  Unfortunately, there were ~5 other women who were ahead of us, and, well, I’m not sure what they did but I do know they got back to the store!  whew!

I’m still trying to figure out nutrition and hydration.  Nothing bothered me yesterday, which was good.  I know I worry about hydrating first thing before I run, and I probably over hydrate.  So after about 4 miles, did I have to pee!!!  A couple miles later, another woman mentioned she did, too.  I just kept going.  Luckily one of the women I was with noticed a port-a-john, and in I went!  As far as nutrition, when I noticed one of the women starting to get into her little bag, I decided it was time to consume something.  And I was starting to get a little hungry!  So I just took in some sport beans.  I don’t think I ever bonked.  I know at the end, I kept going, but my legs were starting to hurt.  I think that was only due to the length of the run.

Due to getting lost a little, we added some mileage to our run!    yeah!  Oh, and the written directions said 13.97 miles.  Um, in the end, I was on my feet for 3 hours and we did 15 miles!  Holy freakin’ cow!!!  15 MILES!  Me.  I ran/walked 15 miles!  Oh. My. Goodness.  On the one hand, I sometimes feel blaise when I say I ran for 15 miles.  On the other hand – wow, what an accomplishment!  So I KNOW that I will be able to complete my half marathon.  I’ve been waiting until the expo to buy any of the runner girl, 13.1 miles, etc stickers.  But I felt like I could do so yesterday at the store.  I didn’t, though.  I’ll still wait!

One of the women suggested that I go out with a certain pace group.  While I’m not running the full marathon, the 2 full and half-marathons are together for the first 7 miles.  This particular pace group will be slower than I normally run, but I don’t know what to expect in terms of hills.  I also figure that I can go with this group for the first few miles, so I don’t go out too fast – which I know I do – and that I’ll have enough in me to finish the race and enjoy finishing the race!

I’m not sure if I did the right thing – jumping from 9 to 15 miles.  But I did.  Now I’ll do some tapering and more running – no more than 10 miles for the long run.

I’m set.  I’m excited!  Woo-hoo – bring it on!