This whole marathon thing is losing its novelty.

Patience is not my thing. I like things that are:

• New.
• Exciting.
• Immediately gratifying

...18 miles is none of those things.
Luckily, I've just recently decided to become a trooper. :)
This run was kind of scary for me. Christie hurt her knee on her 18 miles, and my husband came home from his 20 miler with a bum knee, too. I posted this video on my facebook page as I headed out for my own (seemingly) doomed run.

This is how I felt as I was strapping on my water belt, pepper spray, ipod, garmin & copious snacks/gels.
Off I went.
It wasn't bad for the first 6ish miles. Same old. I was doing a new route so that's always nice (See above) :)
Once I got around 6 miles though my right hamstring began to cramp. I've had tons of issues with cramping during this whole training. I usually just stop for a sec and stretch and its OK. Tried this a few times and was realizing it just wasn't cutting it. I called Hubs at one point to see if he had any ideas. He gave me a couple stretches to try... as I looped back to my car I decided to dump my water belt and just keep my water bottle with Nuun. (First time running with Nuun and I LOVED it!!) I took a good 5 minutes at my car to stretch and felt a little better heading out again. But, as I got to around 13 miles I was having to stop ever half mile or so and stretch. I was also walking for short periods, but soon saw that not only did that not help the cramping it was just making my run take longer :)
It was at this divine time that Christie called :) I was a little worried that I was pulling my hamstring. I had no idea what that meant though, so I asked her what she thought. Josh was there and they've both pulled their hamstrings and said it was a sudden pain from a specific movement. That I was in no danger of that  :) This made all the difference! I knew I could just push through it if there was little chance of making things worse. It was just this huge fear that I was making something worse. So, I hung up with them, called upon my new trooper self, and spent the next 5 miles praying my heart out :) I can say without a shadow of a doubt if it wasn't for Christ picking each foot up for me there's no way I could have finished this run!
I was discouraged when I got home. Even cried to the hubs. What if this is what my body does during long runs?? I cant stop every mile of the marathon to stretch!! I just felt like even though I finished the run I didn't do as well as I wanted to.
This is new for me. Is this being a competitor? In the past I never would have cared that I walked for a bit. (In all honesty it was probably 3/4 mile total I walked, but still...) or that I had to stop over and over, but now... it kind of makes me mad! I want to do better.
I finished in 3 hours 19 min, which means I was at a 10:56 pace. BUT, I stopped my watch every time I stopped to stretch. :) Kinda cheated :) I think you could add on a good 20 min to that time for all the stretching on the side of the road I did. Oy.
But, we're done with 18 miles. Wow.
When I drove through Starbucks on my way home the little kid (he was probably 20. Good land, what an old woman I sound like!) in the drive through asked me what I was up to. I said, "Just got done running." And he said, "How far?" "18 miles," I say. "Pish! Child's play." Says the kid.
And I laughed the whole way home. Because if I had said 8 miles he would have said, "WOW! That's far!" But, its like 18 miles is so far out of the realm of understanding for someone whose never done it. It sounds far, but you have no idea just how far and how long until your feet gone each and every step.
It's kind of cool to be on this side. :)
-Sarah