20 Miles

This morning I ran 20 miles.  This is the longest run of my training; next week I'll run a half marathon (13.1 miles), then the following week my longest run will be eight miles.  Then it's the big day, three weeks from today!  Interestingly, my longest run coincided with my being in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (http://www.twincities.com/health/ci_21751936/turning-point-st-paul-woman-ready-run-new).

An old hip injury started bothering me last week, and that continued to be my biggest problem today.  I was definitely tired (and I have to run 6.2 miles more than this on November 4th! /: ).  But overall, I was very happy with how I did, especially considering that all my runs this last week SUCKED.  There was the hip pain, plus Tuesday at my oncology appointment I had a flu shot and a pertussis booster, which made me tired and achy.  Whatever it was, today it seemed to be gone.

Of course, a big part of that was likely due to Jeanne and Nancy, members of my running club that ran with me.  Both were running shorter distances, but Jeanne organized it so that one of them was always running with me (oh, if I only had that in New York!  Wait, I'll be running with 46,999 of my closest friends...).  I assured them that I can do some of the miles on my own, but, truthfully, it's really nice to have someone to talk to (or, this morning, it was more like listen to).  Plus it makes you accountable when you say you're going to meet someone at Calhoun at 6am. (:

Jeanne and I started out in the dark with our headlamps, running along Cedar and then through Wirth Park.  Getting up early enough to start running at 6 was quite painful, but I really enjoyed running at this time of day.  It started getting light out as we neared our turnaround point at four miles, and the bird activity really picked up (lots and lots of robins, but I also heard the feeble song of young White-throated Sparrows, and a Pileated Woodpecker flew over our heads).  Right after we turned around we saw a frog in the middle of the road, who I think was too cold to move, so we rescued him and carried him out of harm's way.  Eight miles saw us back at Calhoun, where we met up with a skeleton crew from the running club (the small turnout was not a surprise, this being the week after Twin Cities Marathon plus a number of our crew were running the Pike Island Open).  Next we headed out on the Greenway, and at the first water stop (11 miles), Jeanne and Nancy traded places.  We got to see the construction on the Sabo Bridge, and eventually made our way to the river.  At this point, mileage was just under 14 so I ran a little extra on the river road.  

As we made our return toward Lake Calhoun, I really started noting those miles ticking away on my watch: 17, 18, 19...19.53...we came off the path and started heading toward the parking lot and I started choking up.  Oh boy.  We made it back to our cars and the rest of the running club at 20.17 miles, and I lost it.   I got big hugs from all five of these friends, wiped my eyes, and then was ready to eat!

I've been really surprised to my emotional response to finishing some of these runs.  Last week I got choked up when I finished the Twin Cities 10-Mile, and that's a lot shorter distance than my recent long runs.  It's not that I don't readily cry (just give me a sappy commercial, or a good love story - I seem to especially find the tear jerkers when I'm on airplanes), I guess I just didn't realize what a big deal this was, to be training and running a marathon so soon after all this cancer crap.  I think it also just means that I'm doing this - no matter how long it takes, how un-pretty it will be, I'm going to cross that finish line in Central Park.  Kathleen and Ramona, be prepared - you may have a blubbering mess to deal with in New York!