i'm so confused...
ummm.. okaaaay. guys? GUYS! i just ran 12 miles and BEAT my 10 mile time... well ok not beat, but practically (pace wise i did)
10 miles = 2:11:47
12 miles (today) = 2:14:02
uuuuuuuummmm??? okay?
i woke up today, at 4:45am, rolled outta bed at like 5:10, scrambled to get my running gear on and somehow made it out the door by 5:25 (all the while cursing my coach for making us run at 6:00am). its about a half hour drive to our meeting spot and on the way i passed a golf course, at like say 5:45... with people already out there GOLFING. i was in disbelief. who golfs at 5:30am? why would anyone in their right mind volunteer to wake up that early? i wanted to yell at them to go back to bed... but figured that might be frowned upon, so i refrained.
anyway, i get to our meeting point, get my newly bought hydration belt thing on, and i'm all set. it's just getting light outside and i get a feeling of like... i dunno. like hey... this is cool. i feel like i'm part of some super cool ultra dedicated runners club (which i am, but you know what i mean).. so 6:10am we take off. we're running...running...and things are going really well.
37 minutes later (3.1 miles later) i'm at the 1st water stop, and its Gu time. now, this is my first experience with gu, and being the super picky eater that i am, i wasn't exactly looking forward to it. so i picked out Vanilla Bean and... yeah. i thought i should just down the whole thing at once (not something i recommend), and as soon as it was in my mouth i started doing that stomach pump about to throw up thing.. some TNT'ers saw me and did the whole "you can do this, just swallow it and drink water" pep-talk so i managed to get it down without puking everywhere... but it was a definite close call. however, that being said... i could DEFINITELY tell the difference of running with Gu and i officially love whoever invented the stuff.
so, after the Gu adventure i'm off running... somewhere around the 5 mile mark we're going down this big hill along a golf course and turn a corner and i see, i dunno, a hundred runners infront of me. (that might be a slight exaggeration... i'm really bad at gaging #of people in a group) but... it was awesome. i was coming down this big hill, and all these people (Runners Edge running group, come to find out) were running UP the hill, and it was so motivating. i started thinking about all you guys out there on your saturday morning runs, and all the people out EVERYWHERE that train on saturday morning, and the camaraderie between runners and it was awesome. AWE-SOME. all these people i dont know were just smiling as i passed them. "good morning" and "hey how are ya" and "wow this is a big hill" and it was like the fact that we were out there at, at this point, 7am, running... it was like we were all buddies and it just gave me warm fuzzies. and i know thats totally lame, but it was SO motivating and i loved it.
anyway, half way point came and i was feeling great. gu'd myself one more time (figured out that if i put the water in my mouth FIRST, then suck like a third of the Gu packet and then swallow...its not so bad. more like frosting... gotta be careful not to end up drooling everywhere, but it works!) anyway, so then i'm off again. this time going up the huge hill i just ran down... but i'm all gu'd and hydrated and honestly... i felt pretty good.
all of a sudden, i'm at the last water stop and i have THREE MILES left. this is where i got confused. why wasnt i more tired? how did i get there so fast? i'd been running for 1 hour 37 minutes.... and i had THREE miles left. thats it. ????? i started going "holy shit.. what if i come in at 2 hours? what if i'm running a 10 minute mile? that means i could run the marathon in just over 4 hours!! it'd be some sort of record. i'd be some sort of hero".... and yeah, kinda on and on like that for a bit. i was tired and delusional and pretty much outta my mind... i also TRIED to run the rest of the way in at a 10 minute mile pace (because, ya know... i figured at this point i was some sort of mega-athlete) and totally over-did it and had to slow back down and ended up coming in at, as i said earlier, 2:14:02... but not near as tired as i thought i'd be.
so... i dunno what happened. 12 miles in 2:14:02 is an 11:10 pace, which is some sort of insanity for this chick. i'm not going to go too crazy, i'm going to assume this is some sort of fluke.... but... what if its not?? what if this is, roughly, my pace?
what if i'm progressing as a runner and ohmygod.... enjoying it? nuts!!!
10 miles = 2:11:47
12 miles (today) = 2:14:02
uuuuuuuummmm??? okay?
i woke up today, at 4:45am, rolled outta bed at like 5:10, scrambled to get my running gear on and somehow made it out the door by 5:25 (all the while cursing my coach for making us run at 6:00am). its about a half hour drive to our meeting spot and on the way i passed a golf course, at like say 5:45... with people already out there GOLFING. i was in disbelief. who golfs at 5:30am? why would anyone in their right mind volunteer to wake up that early? i wanted to yell at them to go back to bed... but figured that might be frowned upon, so i refrained.
anyway, i get to our meeting point, get my newly bought hydration belt thing on, and i'm all set. it's just getting light outside and i get a feeling of like... i dunno. like hey... this is cool. i feel like i'm part of some super cool ultra dedicated runners club (which i am, but you know what i mean).. so 6:10am we take off. we're running...running...and things are going really well.
37 minutes later (3.1 miles later) i'm at the 1st water stop, and its Gu time. now, this is my first experience with gu, and being the super picky eater that i am, i wasn't exactly looking forward to it. so i picked out Vanilla Bean and... yeah. i thought i should just down the whole thing at once (not something i recommend), and as soon as it was in my mouth i started doing that stomach pump about to throw up thing.. some TNT'ers saw me and did the whole "you can do this, just swallow it and drink water" pep-talk so i managed to get it down without puking everywhere... but it was a definite close call. however, that being said... i could DEFINITELY tell the difference of running with Gu and i officially love whoever invented the stuff.
so, after the Gu adventure i'm off running... somewhere around the 5 mile mark we're going down this big hill along a golf course and turn a corner and i see, i dunno, a hundred runners infront of me. (that might be a slight exaggeration... i'm really bad at gaging #of people in a group) but... it was awesome. i was coming down this big hill, and all these people (Runners Edge running group, come to find out) were running UP the hill, and it was so motivating. i started thinking about all you guys out there on your saturday morning runs, and all the people out EVERYWHERE that train on saturday morning, and the camaraderie between runners and it was awesome. AWE-SOME. all these people i dont know were just smiling as i passed them. "good morning" and "hey how are ya" and "wow this is a big hill" and it was like the fact that we were out there at, at this point, 7am, running... it was like we were all buddies and it just gave me warm fuzzies. and i know thats totally lame, but it was SO motivating and i loved it.
anyway, half way point came and i was feeling great. gu'd myself one more time (figured out that if i put the water in my mouth FIRST, then suck like a third of the Gu packet and then swallow...its not so bad. more like frosting... gotta be careful not to end up drooling everywhere, but it works!) anyway, so then i'm off again. this time going up the huge hill i just ran down... but i'm all gu'd and hydrated and honestly... i felt pretty good.
all of a sudden, i'm at the last water stop and i have THREE MILES left. this is where i got confused. why wasnt i more tired? how did i get there so fast? i'd been running for 1 hour 37 minutes.... and i had THREE miles left. thats it. ????? i started going "holy shit.. what if i come in at 2 hours? what if i'm running a 10 minute mile? that means i could run the marathon in just over 4 hours!! it'd be some sort of record. i'd be some sort of hero".... and yeah, kinda on and on like that for a bit. i was tired and delusional and pretty much outta my mind... i also TRIED to run the rest of the way in at a 10 minute mile pace (because, ya know... i figured at this point i was some sort of mega-athlete) and totally over-did it and had to slow back down and ended up coming in at, as i said earlier, 2:14:02... but not near as tired as i thought i'd be.
so... i dunno what happened. 12 miles in 2:14:02 is an 11:10 pace, which is some sort of insanity for this chick. i'm not going to go too crazy, i'm going to assume this is some sort of fluke.... but... what if its not?? what if this is, roughly, my pace?
what if i'm progressing as a runner and ohmygod.... enjoying it? nuts!!!
posted by a.maria at 7:54 AM
6 Comments:
Girl, I think you found your pace! That is awesome. Except I'm thinking you may have to change your blog name soon. Something to think about... :)
How about that gu? Is it the grossest stuff ever or what? But it totally works, so I guess we have to keep eating it. I wanted to gag too. I can't believe you tried to eat it all in one "bite." Ick. It took me about 3-4.
Fantastic!!!! I am in total, utter awe. I think you TNT guys have a great training program...i'm already thinking of signing up for it next year... next year! arghhh what am i thinking about??
You go grrl. You're amazing.
Am I allowed two posts?? Ok, just a quick question: Are you walking at all? Or totally running the whole thing? the mind boggles. I'm doing run 3 min./walk 1, and i'm feeling like a ... fraud!!!
yeah...no...ohmygosh, i'm of course walking parts! i dont have a specific walk/run time, i just kinda walk when i feel like i need to (once i get tired, i make myself run to a certain tree or sign, etc... then allow myself to walk for a bit, meaning 1 minute-ish, then pick a tree and start running again)... on today's run i think i walked maybe once per mile... usually on the uphill when i started feeling heart-attacky!
That is an awesome time. I hope to make that time on my half marathon!!! Good job!!! Can't wait to see how you do at 14 miles!!!
woohoo! rock on, that is awesome!!! that is so sweet. my 12 is supposed to be this upcoming saturday and i'm scared! you rocked it though, excellent job. can i borrow your shins next weekend? Heehee.
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