Saturday's 15 miler...16 miler...18 miler!!????

The run was interesting for me. I was soooo unmotivated. I was really nervous about running 16 miles too...and I was pretty voice-y about the fact that I was A) unmotivated B) unexcited and C) totally ready to drive back and go to sleep and D) my bowels were having some serious issues. I wasn't excited about running 16 miles with my butt cheeks pressed together. :) But, good on Amanda, she made me push through...and we ran. Flashforward to about a mile in when I remembered that I forgot my car keys..tee hee... we had to run BACK to our car, a mile away, to get the keys. (good thing I remembered because, ps, we were running 16 MILES... who knows what we would've done if we'd finished and I didn't have the keys to drive my car back..hmmmmmm)

Anyway, I had a really really hard time getting into this run. I WAS totally diggin' my nike plus (we ALL need to get them ALLLLL of us). Amanda was in a much better mood and in a much better place physically so she was totally kickin' my butt. She was super sweet, though, and she would run or walk back to where I was (sometimes like 1/4 mile back) to make sure I was doing okay.

It was a discouraging run for me until about (theoretically) mile 13-14ish. I hit a wall around there, around the Pineview Marina. I seriously could barely put one foot in front of another. And, then, I talked myself into running "just one more song" which was 'Ashes' by Embrace. It seemed to rejuvenate me a little... and then the next song was "Half Way there" and ummm... suddenly something switched in my brain and I got a second wind. I was running around the dam dancing on the side of the road and singing out loud. Yes, yes, Amanda has ruined me. :) I'm sure I was quite entertaining to the peeps driving up the road (ooh..manda, in your post you need to talk about all the horses, snowmobiles and trucks...yes yes you do). Then it was like every single song after that made my heart happy and I ran faster. By the time I ran across the dam I was so happy I could have kept running for 4 or 5 more miles, seriously. What in the world was that? A 13 mile warm up? I'm so weird sometimes....

Well, after the run was finished (Manda finished 6 minutes before me, ps, way to go chicka!!) Amanda & I were chatting about how much longer this run took than we thought (3 ish hours?) and could there....would there... maybe... be a chance that it was longer than 16 miles? We both thought it felt longer, but hmmm...maybe... So, we jumped in the car and drove back up. Suddenly... 15 miles.... 16 miles....17 miles.... 18 miles? Wow. Holy cow. We RAN 18 MILES. No WONDER we're tired, sore and it took us FOREVER. We were so excited these were taken:

Ooooh, air freshener in the way.... take it again....Perfect. (we're cool, we know)

My own thoughts about the run? My lungs were okay, it was my legs that were struggling. I think we needed to stretch more, or maybe stop after a 1/2 mile and stretch. My calves were struggling. Post-run I was able to eat a Fiber One Bar, a banana and some milk without puking, that's good.

YAY FOR US!!!!!