Ouch
Question: if you run 26.2 miles and there’s no one at the end to hand you a medal, have you just run a marathon? I know what MY answer is: Hell to the Yeah!
I suppose I should write this post tomorrow to make sure I’m still alive, but considering I can’t do anything more strenuous right now than lay on the couch and eat chips, I might as well do it now.
As you can see from my Garmin, today we ran our longest training run to date: 26.2 miles. That’s right, a full Freakin’ Marathon. We’re following Jeff Galloway’s “to finish” run/walk program; while most training programs limit you to 20-22 miles for your longest run, Jeff recommends going longer since he finds many people will hit The Wall at the point of their longest training run. But the key is to run MUCH slower than you could during the race (at least two minutes/mile). We certainly accomplished that — our average was 11:32/mile; our fastest mile was 10 minutes (mile 11-12), our slowest was 12:47 (mile 21-22).
Our route took us through some of the best scenery Seattle has to offer. We started at our home near Greenlake, wound our way north through the neighborhood and down to the beach at Golden Gardens, headed along Shilshole to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, crossed over to Commodore Park, headed south along the train tracks to Myrtle Edwards Park, continued along the waterfront to Jackson St., where we headed east to Lake Washington Blvd. We continued along the boulevard, then headed up Madison St. to the arboretum. Turned north toward University of Washington, where we picked up the Burke-Gilman trail. We then cut through Cowen Park and wound our way back to Greenlake. Ran around the north end, then stumbled our way back home (I’m getting tired just writing all that out!)
High points:
- The weather — it started off cool & cloudy, and while we got a few sun breaks near the end, the temperature remained pleasurable
- Coming to the aid of a woman in distress (she entered a stall without toilet paper and I handed her some underneath the door). Turns out she’s also doing the Danskin in a couple of weeks, so I gave her a pep talk.
- The bagel and strawberry-banana smoothie break at Starbucks between miles 11 and 12 (I think the nourishment helped make that our fastest mile).
- The little girl standing in front of me in the restroom on Lake Washington Blvd. who whispered to her mom asking if I was hurt (we had run about 16 1/2 miles by then and I was stretching my legs while waiting for a stall. I assured her that while my muscles were quite sore, I was indeed okay. I thanked her for her concern).
- Catching several glimpses of the Blue Angels air show (this weekend is the culmination of the weeks-long Seafair; an annual Seattle tradition. The Blue Angels perform several shows over Lake Washington, just before the hydroplane races).
- Spying the water fountain at the end of Cowen Park (we thought there was one where we first entered the park but were dismayed to find none. By then my water bottles were empty and we were both getting parched).
- Having the course measure out to 26.2 miles pretty much at our doorstep (we just had to run past our house a 1/4 block and back).
- Chowing down on home-made lobster rolls at the end.
Low points:
- The hills! You can’t get to Lake Washington Blvd. from our house without going up one. Of course that heads back down again, so you have to go up another one to get home.
- Seeing my darling suffer during our walk breaks starting at mile 18. His knees were really bothering him, and the transition from running to walking was particularly painful.
- Realizing there wasn’t a water fountain at the entrance to Cowen Park.
- The knot in my shoulder blade. It was particularly bad today; I may have pulled a muscle during my arm weight routine yesterday, so it was hurting for much of the run.
- My teary breakdown at mile 25 due to the shooting pain of said shoulder blade (although the tears were a nice form of release).
- Having my darling almost barf up the lobster roll lunch (fortunately a nap settled his poor tum-tum).
Hmmm… considering there were more high points than low points, I say today was a mighty successful run. Bordeaux, here we come!
August 5th, 2007 at 2:47 am
WOW! You are awesome!
I love the look on your face in the photo: hear me now and believe me later be-otch, I just ran 26.2 miles. So speaketh the Garmin!
Congratulations!
August 6th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Wow, you actually did it! Congratulations, that is amazing!
August 6th, 2007 at 7:08 am
And I actually lived to tell the tale 🙂
August 6th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Definitely it counts!
Thats a great shot too – salty face and the close up garmin shot. One to repeat at the end of Bordeaux I think.
In fact I can imagine a whole series of them panning out over the years.
August 6th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Way to go, Betsy!
August 6th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Bets you ROCK. Can’t wait to see you in Philly this weekend!
August 6th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
dude.
you rawk more than a rawkstar.
i will personally fashion you a medal from tin foil and glitter.
August 6th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Wow, way to go! I really enjoyed reading your post and especially your description of the 26.2 mile path. It’s really easy to get bored running a marathon by yourself, with no course predetermined. (or so i would think, the furthest non-marathon i’ve done was 22 miles) Congrats!
August 6th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Betsy,
That funny, tickly feeling on your feet is just me bowing to kiss them. You are absolutely amazing.
Tell me… what ratio did you use for your walking breaks? Was it a run 9:00/ walk 1:00?… or were they more frequent? Also, how do you force yourself to run such a slower pace than you know you’re capable of running over such a long distance? Is it a constant effort of watching your GPS to keep yourself on track? Does it ever become comfortable enough to find a groove? Does it drive you nuts knowing if you just picked it up a little, you could be home and in bed a lot sooner? 😉
Just curious as I eye up my 18 miler this weekend.
August 6th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
The ratio varied depending on the distance. For runs of 8-12 miles I used roughly a 9:1 ratio, for our 15 & 17 milers it was more like 7:1, and for this weekend’s run it was about 5:1 in the beginning, then we just played it by ear. For example, there were a couple of steep hills going DOWN that we walked (although I don’t care to run UP hills, I find it’s even worse running down them). We counted one of our potty breaks as a walk break. Sometimes we timed the breaks for when we had to cross the street; again, we just played it by ear! When my husband’s knees started bothering him at the end I tried to lengthen the amount of time we ran to 6 or 7 minutes (although I slowed the running pace down).
As for keeping pace, Garmin certainly helps with that, especially in the beginning (the pain keeps us on pace in the end 🙂 ) But yes, you also get into a groove. As for getting home earlier, I guess I just get it in my mind that I’ll be running for X amount of time.
The fact that I recover so much quicker this way helps with the motivation as well. About 4 hours after we finished on Saturday we were walking up to the store; we then walked around Greenlake yesterday (about 3 miles). We were creaky, especially going down stairs, but nothing too bad. Other than my sore shoulder (which is also getting better), I feel rather good today.
August 11th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Betsy, congratulations on conquering the distance. You have done an excellent job of staying with your plan, and I am positive it will result in a wonderful experience in Medoc. I haven’t been able to run more than 6 miles since Seafair. I’m going to try for 8 this afternoon, but now I’ve got “mental” problems to conquer as well as pain in my calf and hip. I miss the days when it was “only 8 miles” 😀 Enjoy your taper!
August 12th, 2007 at 8:20 am
girl – where are you? have you recovered?
August 14th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Yes — I’m alive! I’ve been at a personal chef conference in Philly (and will be posting about a run there soon). The hotel didn’t have free wi-fi so I couldn’t blog or check my email 🙁