Friday, October 3, 2008

20 Miles...CHECK!!!!

Wooooooooo hooooooooo!!! We did it!!! Who is "We" you might ask...that would be me, my Dad, and all of you bloggers! I couldn't have done it without you guys and your support/suggestions, or without my Dad meeting me at various points on my run! Although I am totally in pain right now, I am still smiling, I can't believe that I did it! I'm not kidding you when I say that back in May the furthest I had ever run was about 4 miles, and that was monumental to me then!

So, here's how it went...I got in the truck to drive to the trail and noticed that the trail was 17.2 miles away....I was going to run FURTHER than I was driving?????? I must be crazy! When I got to the trail it was totally raining and my Dad was running late. So I hopped out of the truck and got in a mile and a half to figure out if I was going to need my jacket thingy (it was about 48 degrees), quickly realized I would be too hot, so stopped back at truck and dropped it off, called Dad, still not close. Decided to sit in truck and wait. Good thing I did, he had taken a wrong turn and got there about an hour late, which ended up being perfect because the rain stopped!!! From there I took off and knew I would be meeting my dad at this little ball field about 6 miles away. I decided to stick with my "Run 2 Songs Walk 1 Minute Plan" (very scientific!). My Dad was wearing a bright red Maryland sweatshirt (Go Terps!!! Love that my Dad was fully supporting me, rockin my college sweatshirt and all!), at about 5 miles(actually, I have no idea how far away I was from the tunnel, I suck at guessing that stuff) I could see the tunnel that I would run through and right in front of it I could see a tiny red dot...I wondered if that could be my Dad??? As I got closer I could see it was him, I was so excited that he was there!
He went through the tunnel with me and then we were at the ball filed (Mile 8). I stopped there to refill my Powerade and Water and eat a couple bites of a cliff bar and took off again. I ran up to 10, turned around and saw my Dad again at 12. Took a port-a-john break, and made plans with my Dad to meet at the next point where he could get to the trail (which ended up being Mile 14). At Mile 13 my time was 2:12, so I was 1 minute faster than my Half Marathon time from a couple weeks ago, yippee!

Here is a picture at Mile 14...


From there I headed on down the trail and knew I would see my Dad one more time around Mile 17, that was just a brief passing, we waved and I told him that I was getting considerably slower and not to worry if it took me a really long time to get back to our starting place!! From this point on my walking time increased to about 1.5 - 2 minutes, and my running decreased to about 1.5 songs.

When I got back to our starting point I still had about 2 miles to go (forgot about the extra miles I did in the beginning...duh!!). So I went past the start point, then turned around. When i got to my Dad's truck I was 19.3 Miles,uuugggghhhh!!! I could not run anymore, so my Dad hopped out of the truck and Powerwalked the last part with me until we heard the sweet sound of the Garmin beeping!!! 20 Miles, Holy Shit!!!!!!

Final Time - 3:37:11, I am BEYOND THRILLED!!!!

I did stop my Garmin a few times when "chatted" with my dad for a while, but I wouldn't say that it would any more than 7 minutes to my time.

So, now I'm home, icing the hell out of my knees, feet and left shin. I did get a nasty battlewound on my right big toe....

After the run we went to Bob Evans to eat, so freaking good!!! Now I'm ready for round 2 of food, and then off to bed! Oh yeah, I still need to pack for Dallas....oh well!

Thanks again for everything!!! I hope you all have a great weekend!!!

16 comments:

Aron said...

you are SOOOO awesome!!! congrats on an amazing 20 miler!!! taper time?!?!

Progman2000 said...

Congrats on the 20 - great feeling, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Well done. Awesome that your dad ws there to support you. Sounds like you are ready for the marathon now!! Have a great weekend,

Jason said...

Woohoo!!!

Congrats :)

What I'm about to say is not going to sound like something you'll want to do, but trust me, it works like a charm.

Have an ice bath. Fill your tub up with cold water, put a bunch of ice in it, throw on some gloves and a stocking cap and slowly ease yourself in.

Sit in it for 15 minutes or so. It'll feel cold as hell, but after you get out, your muscles will thank you. No soreness the next day :) It works best when you do it right after your run.

It'll work on marathon day too :)

Congrats again.

teacherwoman said...

Wahoo!! nice job on the 20-miler (plus)!!! Great to have someone there with you too! :)

NikeRun said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
NikeRun said...

Congrats! I just ran 20 miles for the first time ever as well about 2 weeks ago. My marathon is coming up on the 19th-I'm excited.

Good luck on your marathon.

The Laminator said...

Great job on the 20-miler. That is some battle wound. Hope you rest well this weekend. Have a good one and congrats on finishing 20!

Kelly said...

Congratulations! Awesome job! Now is it on to the taper? WAY TO GO! So happy for you! You inspire me, I sound like you back in May, you have come such a long way in such a short time! Are you doing TNT? I've talked to a few people about it, I wonder if that was you...What plan are you following for your marathon training?

Jess said...

CONGRATS!!! I'm so happy you were able to get through your 20 miler and it's awesome that your dad was there to help you out! (I also looove the fact that he was rocking his Terps sweatshirt!!! whooo hoo TERPS!)

I will be heading to homecoming in a few weeks and I'm super excited about it! If I had a marathon the next day though I definitely wouldn't be there either though!!!

Congrats again on the awesome run! Hope the ice eases some of the soreness!

Steve Stenzel said...

NICE JOB!!! And sweet foot pic!

Way to go!!

Anonymous said...

Congrats! I am Burgh gal too!

Marci said...

That is so amazing that your Dad supported you through your 20 miler. Well done!

SuperDave said...

Great run and great story! How cool to have your dad as your cheerleader. I can't believe that you ran 4 miles in May, and 20 miles today. Bravo! That gives me some hope that maybe I can tackle this marathon thing next year.

Marcy said...

CONGRATS CHICA!! What an awesome job! ;D ;D

Yikes! That's one wound if I've ever seen one! Dang!

ncrunner12 said...

Awesome job!! Getting the blister really sucks, but you were able to finish 20 miles... well done.

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