So anyways. Here as some pictures I took throughout the whole entire thing (I had to keep my mind off the miles that we still needed to cover) and tried to keep my boyfriend entertained... except the only thing he could think of, was food.. ha.
Night Before:
-Note to self: do not eat burgers the night before (for the sake of eating, and carbing up.. i wasn't hungry blahhh never again)
-the lazy bug was biting me, I thinking twice whether it was worth doing it.. haha Cold Feet :D
Parking: relatively easy, except there was only one meter in the middle of the entire parking lot for a hell of alot of cars. and it was cheap, $0.25 per hour :)
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| thanks to me for bringing a dollar, we were able to pay for parking. stupid machine wasn't accepting credit cards. hello, its 2012. apparently people don't carry cash anymore |
Traffic to the start line: none
Starting line: waves were being sent off every 30 seconds. this made the route alot less congested. these people know what they were doing. :) I decided, no music through out the 20 miles.
Mile 1-3: Eeek. My hip had been bothering me for the past few days. and I was def feelin' today. -YEAH! only 18 miles to go. -__-
-Woop. First aid station. Gatorade tasted soo good. Oh! potty break lmao
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| Mile 1 |
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| Mile 3 |
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| Mile 3.5 |
Mile 4-6: Me and McSpeedy had the most random conversations while on this run. hahahah
Me: "So this is what it feels like running with no music? It's kinda boring"
McSpeedy: "Well sorta, it's kinda dead right now"
-without music, I was paying more attention to my form, for some reason my hips and thighs felt tight? Like I was running a certain way that didn't let me extend my legs further apart? Wierd.
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| Mile 4 |
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| Mile 5 |
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| Mile 6 |
Mile 7-9:
"Lalalala... still no double digits?" Ah. It was starting to get hot.
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| Mile 7 |
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| Mile 8 |
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| Mile 9 |
Mile 10-13: This is where it starts getting interesting. I haven't ran more than 13.1 miles in a VERY long time. Maybe since the winter... Water break!
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| HALF WAY!!! |
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| Mile 11 |
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| Mile 12 |
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| Mile 13. ...hey this looks familiar Most depressing 13mile mark ever, we're not done just yet.. :( |
Mile 14-15: WOOOH!!!! Finally broke my distance record of 15 miles!!! :D I don't know what I was thinking of when I went on that 15mi journey during the winter. alone.
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| Mile 14.. |
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| :) |
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| Mile 14 |
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| This is false advertisement. I don't know how someone can be so happy at mile 14. |
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| BROKE MY DISTANCE RECORD! Bam! |
Mile 16-17: Okay... my knee is starting to feel a little funny.
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| why hello there mile 17 ;P |
Mile 18: I really hated my boyfriend at this point.
Me: "If I had the energy to punch you, I would" :P
its a love/hate relationship sometimes
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| ...Now he's not LOL Mile 18 |
Mile 19: You can tell where the 19mile mark was. As soon as we passed it, all the group leaders would yell out "Last Mile!!!" and raise their arms. haha. relief!
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| Mile 19.. like a boss :P |
And then we saw where the finish was!
I didn't know whether I wanted to stop running.. or keep going. I was scared of how bad I was going to feel. But it wasn't that bad. 6 hours later.. I can tell my knee is going to be in alot of pain for the next few days. Me and McSpeedy crossed the finish together :) Which I never thought we would...
we definitely had a long time to bond. even though I think we've bonded enough during the past 4 years. but he made it alot easier then I thought it would be.
Overall, great experience. I don't know when or if I'll be crazy enough to run this much again...
to those running the marathon in a few days, GOOD LUCK!
Now I can proudly say I ran 20 miles, for the hell of it :)
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| Finisher shirts were really pretty |
Newton Ready to Run 20 Miler by JV
Before the start:
We arrived at approximately 6 15 AM at the Wilson lot. The lot was getting filled up real quick by a more cars and runners being dropped off. Luckily, we got an awesome deal for parking( 25 cents per hour). The downside was that we had to wait in line for about 20 minutes because there was only one meter. During this time we didn't feel as much excitement as we normally felt for other events. Maybe because it was training run and it wasn't timed ? Whatever the reason was , we were just trying to get to the start line. After we payed , we rushed to the starting line and positioned ourselves with wave #26. Luz and I weren't planning to go for a PR or anything. We just wanted to have a good time and prove ourselves that we can finish the distance. Luz told me she was going to be tweeting live updates of the race at every mile, which made the distance seem more fun and enjoyable :D
The start of the 20 miler went smooth. The pace groups started about 2 minutes after one another. Mile 1 -2 -3 were great until I had to use the washroom around mile 3.5 . Luz kept making fun of me for having to make a quick pit-stop , but I felt much better and relieved ;) After my bathroom break, we kept on running. There were no more bathroom breaks. We stopped at every aid station, which were about 2 miles apart from each other . We drank gatorade so we can make sure we were well hydrated.
Mile 4-10 we felt extremely comfortable, we were running at a good pace and didn't feel tired at all. What made everything better was my running partner :) , who kept making me laugh with her funny twitter updates. As we went on , my legs started to get a bit tense and heavy around mile 11-15 . I knew the following miles were only going to get tougher and i had to suck it up. We would both stop at the aids stations to stretch out for a bit and then we would keep on running. I was worried because i didn't want Luz or I to end up cramping up with several miles remaining. Miles 15-19 were the worst and most dreadful miles that I experienced throughout the whole run. I knew i could finish the run, but my legs were getting the best of me. Since we were both pacing ourselves throughout most of the run, we weren't physically tired. But our legs were in pain !! >_< We kept pushing through mile after mile , stopping at every aid station, motivating each other , and we finally saw the finish line in sight. We were both relieved that it was about to be over . We finally crossed the finish line at about the 3 hour mark.
This training run has proven to me that I am ready for the Chicago Marathon.
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| at mile 14.5 hahah i love him :) |
Congrats on the distance record!
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