If it doesn't kill me...

Today I ran my longest run yet. Eighteen miles. It was...hard. Because I'm not able, for a variety of reasons, to make it to Team practice tomorrow, I ran the miles at home near my house. I'm very grateful that my friend and fellow Teammate needed to get in an 11-mile run, so she kept me company for a large part of the run. The first 11-miles were not bad at all. It was nice to have company!! We had some killer hills, because that's what happens to be near my house, but overall we had a good time and it didn't feel like it was an extreme effort. My last 7-miles, however, were a different story. I had to head back out and back up one of the bigger hills of our previous route. I think that mentally tackled me before I even got to it. Halfway up, and about 13 miles in to the whole distance, I had to walk. I walked for probably a half mile at that point, and I walked for short stretches through the remainder of the run.

In addition to the hills and long distance, I had to run later in the day than I'm used to running, and it was starting to get warm. So warm, in fact, that by mile 15, my feet had started to swell so much that I had to stop and loosen my shoelaces. I drank well over 64 ounces of fluids, and was still feeling dry. My legs were starting to feel like they were swelling, too. Maybe it was all in my head, but I actually felt like my thighs might burst through my shorts! By the end of the run, almost every one of my toes had a blister on the end, my legs felt like lead weights and I was chafed in brand new places. But I finished deliriously happy because I did finish. It was hard, and it will get harder, but I know if I didn't die, I must be getting stronger!

BIG THANKS!!

I just reached the $2000 mark on fundraising, making me meet my latest challenge of $2000 by the 20 mile training run, which will be on May 15th. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! My support team rocks, and I couldn't do it without you! Touching lives and helping to fund research to find CURES!

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So much to say, so much to say...

Last Saturday was my 16 mile run. That's the farthest I've ever gone before!! It took me just over 3 hours to do it, so I had plenty of time to think about what to write about. I came up with so many things, I will probably have to split them all into two posts!

First of all, WOOOHOOO!!! I finished 16 miles!! It felt pretty good. My knee and right hip started giving some trouble about mile 14.5, and my quads are still really sore, but overall, I was pleased to find that I didn't bonk and I didn't die. It was a long run. I have even longer ones coming up and they scare me a little. But it's good to be a little scared. If it was easy it wouldn't be a marathon, right?

I have decided that running any distance more than about 10 miles is sort of like getting a tattoo. You know it's going to hurt before you start, but once you do start, you eventually become a bit numb to the pain. In a weird way, at least for me, during the long miles I start to feel the tiredness and the things that are beginning to hurt, and I do register them, but it's as if those things exist in a part of my mind that I can "file away." Sure, if I dwell on them, they start to drag me down, but if I just notice them and push the thoughts into the "file for later use" box, I can let my thoughts go elsewhere and my body just keeps moving. Getting into the longer and longer runs has sometimes felt surreal to me. I know I'm consciously making a choice to keep running, but it does almost begin to become subconscious...like breathing. My legs just keep going. I'm not thinking, "I just have to run one more mile," or "I just have to run to that tree" because I often have so much farther to go I can't even fathom it rationally. I just think, "keep going," and somehow, I do. There is a point during almost every run over 13 miles when I eventually hit a wall. The stuff in the "file for later use" box falls out all over the place and it is tough to pick it all up, cram it back in there and keep going. But I'm learning how to do it. Right about mile 15 on Saturday, the box started to throw-up everything I'd crammed in with the knee and the hip and the aching quads. I stopped for two or three minutes, had a drink and stretched, and kept going. I sure hope I can keep being able to do that as we add even more miles!

Next, I was reading an article a while back...and I can't remember WHERE I read it or who wrote it, darn it...but the writer was a runner and said he really liked running to Japanese Taiko drums. I thought that was interesting, and checked out a few tracks just to see what it was like. I REALLY like a song by Kodo called Strobe's Nanafushi. If my head had a soundtrack when I'm running a long run, this is what it would be. Lots of loud drums and yelling. Cool. There are a couple of other fun songs on the album, too. Check it out if you want something new and adventurous to listen to. I also had a new Podrunner mix on my last run, and it contained some running cadences. Something else interesting to try if you're bored with your current playlist. Find the Podrunner mix for FREE on iTunes: Power Play.

More to come soon...

Higher mileage, new goal!

Wow. We're just about 6 weeks out from the marathon date, and the mileage is starting to really crank up. My weekly runs are up to 6 or 7 miles at a time, and that's far more than I've ever done during a weekly run. This weekend I'll do 16 miles for the first time. Coming up May 15 will be the longest run we'll do pre-race. 20 miles. I have to be honest, it seems a little scary right at this moment, but I know when it gets here I'll be able to do it.

Twenty miles is a big deal for me. I remember when 5 miles seemed daunting, now I'll be doing 4 times that much!! To celebrate this coming major milestone, I have set a goal for myself of getting to $2,000 in fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by the 20 mile run. So by May 15th, I need just over $150 more. That's TOTALLY doable. That's just 15 people giving $10, or 30 people giving $5. My youngest son just gave me two pennies he found in his pocket, so I've already got just $149.98 to go! You can click on the widget on the right over there, or here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/rnr10/jresch to check on my progress!

A run through Redlands

Last Saturday we were on a cutback week, so our weekend long run was only slated for 10 miles. What I didn't bank on was that it would be 10 of the hardest miles I'd ever run! We followed most of the course for the Run Through Redlands race that was supposed to happen on Sunday. Although it was a GORGEOUS run with lots of beautiful homes, scenery and landscapes to look at, the hills were crazy steep. I was out on an early start with one of our wonderful Team run/walkers, so we kept a really easy pace, and that is probably what allowed me to keep going at all!! If you want to see the course route and elevation, you can see it here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3623664. Running up Rossmont alone was like rock climbing up asphalt. I am pretty sure there were people repelling down as we went up!!

The good news is, I know that running hills does make me stronger!! That thought alone helped keep me pushing. I was incredibly sore afterwards, so that also reminded me I was working my muscles hard and building them up. That said, and in spite of the beautiful overlooks, I think I'd rather not run through Redlands again for a while. Give me time to forget how steep those hills really were!

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