I have NO CLUE how this run went so well. I think it was a combination of grit, determination and just plain stubbornness. Also, the weather was delightful — 50-something degrees and sunny!
18 miles — 2:54:18, 9:41 pace
That’s new personal distance record and very satisfying pace after a week of being sick as a dog!
It called for a little Reluctant Runner-style Blue Steel.
True life: I literally crawled up the stairs of my townhouse — on all fours — to grab my phone from the kitchen for this ridiculous photo. Stairs are fun, and by fun I mean EFFING IMPOSSIBLE.
Since I love me a good 9-miler, I mentally broke this run up into two 9-milers. I did my usual route along the Burke-Gilman trail and around Lake Union for the first 9 miles and felt fine, although a little slower than usual. Then I tried to reprogram my brain to think, “OK, now I just go run 9 miles!” like I hadn’t just run 9 miles.
Surprise! It didn’t really work. I wanted to go home so badly, especially since I was within a quarter mile of my townhouse. The last 9 miles were all heart. And stubbornness. And determination.
Mile 14 was by far my slowest because it involved running up a hill on Eastlake for the second time. It wasn’t very fun.
I legitimately wanted to quit at mile 15.5 because I was just tired. I spent the whole week resting and trying to recover from being sick, not working out, so my body was all like “WTF?” when I asked it to run for nearly three hours.
I just kept telling myself, “Only 2.5 miles to go — you can do anything for 2.5 miles,” and so on and so on with the remaining distance until I got to the very end.
And the end was glorious. I collapsed on my patio and stretched. The concrete felt so good that it might as well have been a pillowtop mattress. Yum.
OH, and FYI for all the Tumblrites that ran Soaring Wings this morning: I hit 13.1 at 2:05:44 and made a mental note of it so I could pretend that I’m as cool as you guys today. I didn’t sign up for the virtual half… I just keep the crazy alive on my own.
Dev on Running 