11 miles

So, we woke up Saturday to rain, Mom called about 5:30am to advise that she thought it was suppose to pour all morning and she was not going, we agreed and decided to make up our miles later in the weekend. We slept for another hour or so and guess what...it stopped raining.

I really felt bad about missing the Fleet Feet run, so I told Karen I was running, but would do some configuration of our runs that we normally do near the house. After I got ready, I noticed Mom had called...I called her back and she wanted to see if we were running, she decided it was also in her best interest to get the miles out of the way and she came over...

We did a modified version of our normal 2.5 mile out and back and ran 3 out and back twice. The first 7 or 8 miles went really well...around mile 8, I realized that I was running out of water. At that point I was not totally concerned, but at about mile 9, I hit the wall. I have read about "the Wall" and was very thankful that I had not hit it yet, but I guess I knew it was going to be there and eventually it would happen. So, at about mile 9, my body decided that it did not want to run anymore. There was nothing my mind could do to push it forward. I ran out of water and began to panic...so I walked a mile...I tried to start back up my intervals, but a mile from the house, I decided just to walk. I was pretty upset when I got home, I broke 10 miles for the first time, I was expecting this exhilarating feeling like I have had with my other long runs, but I just felt lucky to finish.

Here are things that I learned from yesterdays run:

1. I need to eat a better breakfast on the long run mornings. I realize that my body was running on fumes...

2. I need to manage my water better.

3. I need to manage my early miles better. Mom noticed that our pace was pretty quick at the beginning...I have to know that I can work a negative split and run slower at the beginning.

I have to remind myself that we really just started 4 months ago, the thought that we are already running a half marathon is pretty good. I am going to learn from mistakes to make myself a better runner...

This week is a well needed recovery week which will consist of a couple of 3-4 milers and a 5.8 miler at Percy Warner...

We will see what the week brings...

Joe