Week Two ~ Completed

I've had to look at it all week.

There. On my calendar.

Sunday: 12 miles

The last time I ran that kind of a distance was back in September.

But, my marathon training schedule said to run 12 miles, so that is what I had to do.

There was no way that I was running that kind of distance on a treadmill. I didn't feel like torturing myself today. So, I mapped out my route in the nearby town of Woodstock using Map My Run. I got the general idea of where I was supposed to go.

Last night, I slept the best I have in weeks. I got up and got around for church. I had a bowl of cereal before heading out the door. After church, I ate a sandwich on the way to my husband's parents house (my starting point) and had a few m&m's once I got there. Then I was off to tour the town on foot.

I wanted to start out slow because of how sick I got on my run on Friday. I didn't want that to happen again. So, I tried my best to keep a 10:45 pace until I reached the 4 mile point. It was comfortable and allowed me to enjoy the route and the beautiful trees with frozen fog on them. Some points were just breath taking...it made me wish I would have set out with my camera in hand. Around mile 4, I had to pee so bad and decided to take a short cut back to my in-laws for a potty break (squatting in the snow didn't sound worth it for a run as unimportant as this...race day maybe). I arrived back at the house with a little over 6 miles under my belt in a little over one hour. I paused my watch, did my thing, grabbed a few more m&m's and a sip of water. I was back out the door.

The last five point five felt really good. I looked down when my watch beeped to let me know I had hit ten miles and saw my time as 1:45:29. It was energizing to know that I only had two more miles to go. I ran into the wind almost the whole rest of the way back, which was miserable, but I finished with a time of 2:05:39 and still felt like I had more in me.

I finished this week with a total of 38.5 miles. I am chugging along. I am looking forward to the hard work this is going to take and you better believe I am going to cross that finish line with my arms in the air.