O.M.G. (OH-MY-GU)

I totally thought of that title while on my 16 miler today. I thought it was pretty clever. Maybe not.

Anyway, today, I logged in 16 miles. 16 MILES! That's the most I've ever gone so far, so I have to say, I'm quite proud of myself. In addition to that, it was actually probably the best long run I've logged in so far.

Last week, I ran 14 miles for my long run and I was EXHAUSTED almost the whole time. And the entire time I was running, all I could think about was how I was only running 14 miles (half of the real race) and I was so butt tired. How the hell was I going to survive the marathong?! Well, silly me, I didn't think of it at the time, but I hadn't even thought of endurance supplements for my long runs. The last time I had GU was back in July, I think, and I had it on a 12 mile run. I didn't really feel a difference, and I just felt like I was consuming calories and not really expending them. But today, I ate a GU pack (Vanilla Bean: pretty tasty) 15 minutes before I started running, and then at another pack 45 minutes after that, and then one more 45 minutes after that.

Being able to compare how I felt last week, at 14 miles, with just water, to today, at 16 miles with water and GU... OMG. OH MY GU. It was like I was a completely different person. I actually felt GOOD running. Normally, I always feel like I wish I hadn't decided to run the marathong, but today, I was energized and kept a good pace! Of course, 16 miles is 16 miles, regardless of how much GU I consumed, and my legs and feet still are sore, but the time I spent running wasn't miserable. And that is awesome.

I managed to run a sub 2 hour 1/2 marathong and kept an average pace of sub 9 min for the entire run. Maybe not fast to some of you crazy runners, but for me, I'll take those numbers. Today was exactly what I needed to regain some of the motivation I lost over the last few runs of twisting my ankle and dealing with crappy weather conditions and blisters and all. Hopefully I can take this feeling and carry it on into the next couple of months. Come Januray, I'll be running 20 miles-ish and probably REALLY wishing I didn't decide to run this race... but we'll see!!