Week 12 of 13: 12 miles in 2:00

Yay, this was my first taper run.  I only had to run 12 miles and was happy to gain a few hours back in my life.  I went down to a friends in a flat area, no hills!!

We started around 6:30 and looped back a few times to grab different runners every 3 miles or so.  My piriformis was still acting a little crazy, and my hips were tight.  

I just kept thinking about food AND the fact that this was the last double digit run.  I was maintaining a 10:15 pace which is great because that was the goal marathon pace.  

I managed to run 12 miles in 2 hours, which is average, but given my pain I was happy.

I then ate probably the best bagel of my life.  I'm so mad I didn't take a picture.  It was a french toast flavored bagel (that is made with maple syrup), with vanilla walnut cream cheese. 

Week 11 of 13: 17 miles in 3:03

All week I had been debating where to run my final and second 20 miler.  Last week I ran 20 super hilly miles in 3:33 and was definitely feeling the after effects.  My piriformis was on fire and any wrong movements sent me into intense pain, identical to that of a herniated disc.

I was back and forth between finding a flat stretch of earth, or just sucking it up on the hills.  I finally decided to suck up the hills.

Now, the area where I live is very hilly considering Delaware is a flat or below sea level area.  I actually bought in the area because it reminded me of where I grew up, and that it was super runner and biker friendly.  :)

I like to think I run with finesse, but I know my mind and actual running gait vary, A LOT!

This is how I think I look:

Last week, not so much.  I ended up walking most of the hills to avoid the revenge of my piriformis.

In case you have no idea what i'm talking about, it's a literal pain in the..

And this pain seemed to become more aggravated with running up and down hills.  

One of my friends running the marathon (there's actually a good number of us running), met me and we started our 20 miles of fun.

The weather has been bipolar here ranging between 30-75 degrees during the month of October.  The morning of this 20 it was 32 degrees.  I had to dig out a hat, gloves, long sleeve, and bought new running tights.  I bought some new socks.  My biggest concern was wind on skin.  Particularly the area between my pants and socks.  Yikes!

We left and started the 20 mile run.  I was still hurting from the week priors 20 miler.  Most people take a fall back week in between their 20 mile runs, I didn't have the option because I took a rest week earlier on.

My long run pace is between 10-11 minute miles.  I was holding strong for the first 10ish, but was mentally falling apart.  My poor running buddy, she probably thinks I'm crazy!  Talking to myself and trying to figure out what was wrong with me I'm sure was an interesting sight!

I then came to the conclusion women with hips and butts shouldn't run, ever!  Now this is totally ridiculous, but I don't think I'm meant to run for hours and hours.  I've got a lot more to drag around than those super skinny marathoners.

Maybe I'm wrong.  If anyone knows of any Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce esq woman that runs fast, please let me know!

At this point I decided that maybe I should get more into my strength and yoga workouts.  And start to train for triathlons over the winter.  I like to run, but this run had changed my "love" for of it 100%.  Mind you, this was all going through my head as I ran.  

My running buddy kept coming back to check on me, and I was running, just a bit slower.  I maintained a 10:20 pace during this run.

What kept me going was fuel.  Why? Because I'm a super fat kid at heart.  I love these gu chomps in orange, I think i'll use them for the marathon since they use less energy to chew.

We were about 6 miles in when we passed a Redner's 18-wheeler pulled over.  I figured the driver was either lost or looking for food or a bathroom.  Until we realized he wasn't.  As we approached said truck, the truck driver was outside of the truck.  It was around 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning and this driver was on the ground it appeared was doing something on the ground.  

And then we saw it.  A dead deer was on the side of the road.  My immediate reaction was that the truck hit the deer and the driver was helping the deer.  Then my brain clicked and I remembered this was a deer, not a human.  As we passed, I realized the driver was taking all of the deers internal organs out, to what we later figured out, he probably planned to eat.  Now I know that people hunt, and kill animals.  However, the road this was happening on was not wild forest, it was leading into a classy area where this type of thing doesn't happen.  I still need to get in touch with Redner's.  The fact that their driver was cutting a deer up, then it appeared taking it in his truck (which i'm sure transports food) i'm sure is against numerous health regulations.  Yuck!

We continued on and found a bathroom, then ran to a park to get some more mileage in.  From this point we looped back and ran most of the prior mileage.  

At mile 12 I told my buddy that I'd let myself stop at 16.  I was hurtingg.  I initially stopped at 16.4 and was freezing, remember how it was 32!  I decided to run a bit more because the stretch was going downhill.  I ended up running 17 miles in total in about 3 hours.  If i hadn't stopped my watch this 20 would've taken 4 hours, including an hour to walk the remaining 3.

This was the longest run of training, then straight into TAPER!!