16 miles!

Ahh... Sweet 16, miles that is :) Today my marathon team ran a 16 miles "bridge to bridge" run. Being the slacker that I have been for the past few weeks, I had some conserns about being able to do it. I mentioned this to my coach beforehand and was told to only go as far as my body would let me.

Just before we left, a friend of mine, Shelly, asked me if I took the suplement she had given me the week before. Muscle Fuel is supposed to be mixed with water and taken just before a long run or workout. My answer to her was, "Shoot, no, I forgot." She laughed and handed me another to mix with my remaining water. I little fizzy and not something I would drink for pure pleasure, but not all together bad either. I crossed my fingers and started to run with the pack.

When we hit the first water stop (mile 2) I was fine, no problems what so ever. By the second water stop (4 miles) I was STILL fine. That was when I started to wonder what was going on. Even in shape by 4 miles I'm a little winded, but not today. In fact, I was staying with the pack and doing fine all the way until mile 12! No problems what-so-ever. Suddenly though, the back of my knees were kiiiiiiiiiiiillllllling me! I had to slow down. A Chinese prover that I have in my classroom came to mind: "Be not afraid of ging slowly, be only afraid of standing still." Even though I slowed down considerably and was falling behind the pack, I still kept up with the 4:1's for the most part. John, a teammate and team mentor, noticed I was trailing and slowed down to stay with me. He is probably a big part of why I continued to keep up with the 4:1's as long as I did.

When we got to the last waterstop before the end (Mile 14), the group we had been running with was just leaving. Maybe I wasn't quite as far behind them as I thought I was...then again, it's possible that they just spent a really long time at the stop giving me time to catch up. I like to think it was the first one though :)

On the last time over the final bridge (there were two bridges, over each one twice), John and I ran to the base, walked up to the top, then down and nearly to the finish. We took our one minute walk and then ran in. I don't know what my actual time was, but prior to mile 12 when I started putzing out, we were averaging 11 minute miles.

Michele, our coach, is also a deep muscle massage therapist so she often has a line waiting for her to ease our aches and pains after our runs. After our stretches, I had her fix my knees. Somehow, she knew exactly what to do to my upper thigh (just below my butt) that fixed my knee! I winced and grimaced as I lad down, yet I almost hopped up. Afterwards I was sore simply because I had just run 16 miles, but the knees weren't hurting me so badly! :) YAY Michele...she's my hero of the day!

Once home, I took a cool bath with apple cider vinegar (laugh, but it really works for muscle soreness!), then a quick shower so I didn't smell like a salad, a short nap and I'm all better!