Fantastic Fifteen

Today's schedule called for a 15 mile run. I have to be honest, I was intimidated by the thought of today's run last night and even put it out there on my facebook status. I had many people be very supportive and encouraging on facebook last night which truly did help a lot. My alarm went off at 5:30 AM and of course I hit snooze for a good 30 minutes. Once I finally got out of bed, I headed downstairs and had my standard cup of coffee, banana, and peanut butter toast. Today I decided to try something different and I took my shot blocks before I even started running. I opted for strawberry flavor, not too bad.

I spent the next few minutes drinking some water and getting my running gear on and I was out the door bright and early. In fact, the sun didn't come up until I was about 20 minutes into my run.

I started out slowly since I knew I would be covering a lot of ground today. I was glad to realize that my legs felt good and I was feeling very optimistic that today's run wouldn't be a repeat of last Sunday's terrible ten miler. I did run the same 5 mile loop I ran last weekend so that I would be able to hydrate and fuel after each loop.

Miles 0-5 (loop 1)
48:50
9:46/mile

I stopped and had a few drinks of water after the first loop and then I was off again.

Miles 5-10 (loop 2)
47:50
9:34/mile

Around mile 9 of this loop I took out my sports beans. It was quite frustrating since I had to remove my gloves in order to get the package open. It was crazy how hard it was to actually open the resealable package. Once I finally got it open and went to pour a few in my hand, two or three landed right on the road..oops. I slowly ate the sports beans while I continued on with my run. I went for the orange flavored sports beans. This was my first time using them. I think I have found my new fuel of choice. They were very easy to eat while running and quite tasty. I grabbed water when I got back to the house at the end of loop 2.

Miles 10-15 (loop 3)
47:00
9:24/mile

I made a point during the third loop to check my time when I hit 13.1 miles. My time was 2:06 which is a good minute faster than I ran the Cleveland 1/2 Marathon last May. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Right around mile 13 my feet started to hurt and my legs started to get heavy. When I hit the "half marathon" point of my run I just kept telling myself I had less than 2 miles to go and I could run 2 miles in my sleep. By the 14.5 mile mark I was tired with heavy legs. I was so happy to see the street sign that indicated the end of my 15 mile run. I couldn't get to that sign fast enough! I got to that sign and stopped my Garmin.

Finish Time
2:23
9:32/mile

Overall, I had a really good run today. It was the polar opposite of last Sunday's run and I am so thankful for that. It made me realize that I can do this.

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!