Yesterday, I got up and ran. We were at my husband's mom's farm, and my sister-in-law helped find a nice out and back route to take me 32km. Except it ended up being 34km. I did it! My husband came along with me, since it was out on isolated (but stunningly beautiful) roads. Lakes and trees and rivers and rolling hills. Those hills got less charming during the last couple of kilometres. I was also disturbed by my time, thinking I was only running 32, and feeling it had been a slower than expected pace. But it turns out my pace was good. I averaged 5:45/km, and ran the distance in 3 hours, 15 minutes. That's the longest I've ever done sustained exercise. Even the triathlon was only 2 hours, 53 minutes.
Everyone who's run a marathon tells me how brutal the last 10km are. I now have a sense of that. I kept asking myself: can I make it another 10 kilometres? And toward the end, self started answering, yes, but I don't want to! It was starting to get painful. I mean that literally. My pelvis hurt. My feet hurt. My toes still hurt (I don't think running is good for the toes). I'm a bit achy this morning, but not bad.
And I had the energy to drive us home late last night.
With that time, and assuming I could hold the pace for another 8km, I could just sneak in under four hours, which is my long-standing goal. I hope I won't be disappointed with myself if I'm slower than that ... but I'm pleased with my effort yesterday. Glad I got out, and glad I got to run in such beautiful weather through such amazing scenery.
1 comment:
Without a doubt you will make the last 10 kms! But that is when mentally, it gets tough! But you are really tough and I know you will do it.
If you are concerned with your time, you can always download a pace band and attach it to you wrist (have you heard of these?). You just stick to the time/kilometre exactly and you should finish in the time you are hoping.
The year I wanted to qualify for Boston I used a pace band and I was feeling fantastic! For the first 10kms or so my time was faster than it should have been at each kilometre. I thought, "this is great! I feel great!" and I kept it up. However, by the last 10k I ran out of gas and missed qualifying for Boston by 8 minutes! If you use a pace band, stick to it no matter how good you feel!
Good job on your run and it is nice that it was actually a bit longer than you thought!
T
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