14 Miles - check

Stinky, wet, and tired. That is me after running 14 miles in really humid weather.

My first 5 miles I ran with my running partner, which was so nice. I realized the full extent of how nice this was when I reached mile 7 and was pleasantly surprised that I was already half way done.

Sunrise after 5 miles.

















I took a gel at mile 7ish. I had one bottle of my fuel belt filled with Gatorade and the rest with water. I was doing well sipping on all of them, interchanging the Gatorade with water. Straight up Gatorade is gross to me while running. Leaves my mouth coated and dry, so I always follow it with a water chaser. After a run I can drink it though.

The fuel belt. Ran out of water by the end...

















Miles 7 - 10 were a bit rough. My legs and feet began to hurt. My new shoes (new since I've been training for this) have never been very comfortable. My shoes that I've had 5 different colors of have been discontinued [sniff] so I got fitted for a totally different style and brand a few months ago. Today was the ultimate test for them – see if I get blisters or not. I had a spare pair of shoes in my car in case they got really bad and I could go back and change them. I never got any blisters, but am forming some callouses on the insides of my feet that are annoying.

I followed a sidewalk during miles 9 - 10. After that I was on a two lane road and then back in a neighborhood with wide streets. While I greatly prefer running on the asphalt verses hard concrete, I found that running on the narrow sidewalks gave me the illusion that I was going a lot faster. I needed any help I could get mentally at this point and moved up onto the sidewalk.

I was nearly out of water and thought I'd finish up whatever mileage I had left to go at the high school track and hit the water fountains that I imagined would be on every corner of the track. But there was a football scrimmage going on and herds of boys and girls getting ready to run themselves, plus I never saw a water fountain. So I turned around and went back to where I would end, in a park that I knew had water fountains. I found one and filled up two of my empty bottles - one more to drink and one to dump on my head.

Finally, I was done. I walked around, dumping more water on me and cooled off. I couldn't wait to get home and drink a soda. Greg poured me a Sunkist over ice and I downed it in about 5 minutes. I'm sure this isn't a technique any coach or health professional would recommend, but I've found that as soon as I'm done with a long run, if I drink a soda, I recover very quickly. So I do it.

Done!!! Again, a happy face at the end of a long run, though this one was a little forced...