10-ish Miles

I know it's not terribly precise, but I ran 10-ish miles this morning! I used other people's entries on MapMyRUN to plan out a route at Terry Hershey Park that I thought would be at least (and hopefully not much more than) 10 miles. This was my last "long run" before the half marathon in Austin, which is two weeks from today. Eeeek!

Terry Hershey Park

Since I don't have a smartphone, GPS watch or other fancy device to tell me how far or fast I've gone, I had to figure all of that out once I got home. It turns out I went a total of 11 miles, and made it 9.8 miles before stopping to walk - a new record by far. This might be the craziest thing I've ever done (South American adventures included).

I still don't know how long it took, because I accidentally turned off my stopwatch about 2 minutes in. I finally figured it out when my new birthday watch (thanks Casey!) told me I had burned 16 calories. I thought, "16 calories?! I must have burned at least 1,000 by now!" The watch counts calories (based on heart rate, I think), but only when the stopwatch is going. It had probably been off for a mile or so. My best guess is somewhere between 2:00 and 2:15.

The run wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, which was a lovely surprise. For the first time, I think I hit the "groove" that I hear runners talk about, where you feel like you could keep going as long as you needed to. Well, within a reasonable distance. I definitely got some practice pushing through difficult spots and switching up my stride/pace to figure out what hurts the least. I was surprised to find that my runner's knee pain (which eventually forced me to walk for a bit) would not be the most uncomfortable part of the journey.

Another shot of Terry Hershey Park

As I crept up on 10 miles, I could feel the swelling in my hands, legs and feet and started to pray that I would make it back to the car before any of them exploded. I contemplated asking oncoming pedestrians how far it was until the parking lot. Then I decided it would probably make me look even worse off than I already was and wouldn't have any impact on how far I had to schlep my bones until I could sit down. Eventually I made it; and oh, what a feeling! I stretched a bit, piled in the car and called Casey to let him know I had survived and was on my way home. I also informed him that my knees might require that I be carried up the stairs to our apartment. I am proud to report that I made it all by myself!

We can run a half marathon!
See - we're good at taking on difficult tasks.

I would be lying if I said I felt prepared for the half marathon in two weeks, but now I feel pretty sure that at least I won't die attempting to run it.

I am definitely excited to see Sadie and take on this adventure together!

Now back to my regularly scheduled icing.