18 Miles!

A very rambling blog entry...

18 MILES! Woo. I did it. This morning. It's been a pretty long training process and I am finally getting to the workouts with BIG miles! I'm proud of the progress I've made... I still have some work ahead of me, but after today's run I finally feel like I've reached the point where I am confident in my physical ability do this marathon. Mentally, I'm still working on it! If I had to do the marathon 2-3 weeks from now, I feel I could do it!

The day before my big runs is always a day to prepare for the next day's run. I watch what I eat and I am hydrating all day. It seems to be working because my long runs have been pretty successful so far. Last night I iced my shins - they started bothering me yesterday and my knees have been a bit sore and I've been icing them as well.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 to get ready to start running at 7. I got to talk to my BFF Jessimba who happened to be up I so that was a nice, encouraging conversation before I embarked I what I'm calling "Kim's Parade Around Newark." I started my run at the Newark Reservoir and went practically around the entire city. It was a good mix of scenery and flats and some hills. Most of the run was flat though. I was really feeling good through most of the run - surprisingly good. I broke the run into 2 sections. Miles 1-11.5 I ran alone. At 11.5 I ran by my friend, Anna's, house and she joined me for the rest. She was a great help and kept me motivated!! I was tired from mile 12 on, but didn't really hit wall until 16.5 miles. And it was more of a mental than physical wall. At that point tons of obscentities were running through my head. I tried to think positive thoughts but it wasn't working well until I realized I was going to finish my run in under 3 hours so I kicked it in gear. I finished strong - the strongest finish of all of my long runs to date and I was really sore when I finished. After driving in the car, I definitely struggled to walk. As the day went on, my legs got looser and I'm feeling okay. Just okay though... I did run 18 miles afterall. At some points of the day I felt a bit naseuous, but I think it's because I needed to eat more.

A lot of times when I run I think about the progress I've made since the first day I attempted any long distance run. My first cross country meet (3.1 miles) I probably finished around 38 minutes. I walked and I complained... but eventually I grew to love running. Hence why I'm crazy enough to train to run 26.2 miles. I think anyone can become a runner if they really want it bad enough. I am amazed everyday I lace my sneakers up at how powerful the human body is. The thought of running 18 miles always seemed so daunting, but with each week of training, my body gets stronger, but more importantly, my mind gets stronger. The fact that I could run for almost 3 hours straight is simply amazing. Respect your body, people it does great things!

P.S. This is such terrible rambling jibber jabber.

Peace. Love. Run.