The 10 Miler

I signed up for it back in December but was not to worried about it back then. I had MONTHS to train for it.

With my running group, I have been doing long runs since November. Every Saturday, at 10am, I go running. Once in a while, I'd also run at lunch with my coworker.

The 10-week training was supposed to have started at the end of January. January came and went, and nothing. February passed... With 4 weeks to go, I finally started the training. From running once or twice a week to running 4 times a week.

My calves were sore, my foot started throbbing (I now have this), but I didn't give up. Waiting last minute to train I didn't have the luxury to feel sorry for myself. I iced my foot at night, took anti-inflammatories, avoided wearing heels and going on long walks.

The 10 miler? Still seemed like an unattainable goal. I mean, I ran the St. Patrick's Day 8k, and crossing the finish line completely exhausted, I couldn't stop thinking "holy crap, I need to run twice as much in less than a month!!!"

It's not that I didn't know if I could finish 10 miles, my biggest fear was that I could not run the whole thing. And since I have to finish it in 2:20 hours or I'll get picked up by the bus, walking is not an option, I have to be able to run the whole thing (I would die if I cross the finish line inside a bus!).

I ran 7 miles last weekend at the C&O Canal trail and felt great. The 10 miler got a tad more attainable -- heck I could have walked the last 3 miles and still finish by the cutoff time. But it wasn't until this weekend, on my last long run of training, when I had to run 8 miles, that I got complete confidence that I can finish the 10 miler, and I can do it all by running it.

I didn't get much sleep, woke up with an awful headache an exhausted, only to look outside and see the wet ground. It wasn't raining, but it had just recently stopped. I didn't want to run. The boy, who wasn't running because he is injured (he is running the race with me too), was tired of my whining and had more confidence in me than I did in myself.

But I ran the 8 miles with no problems. I was chatting the whole time (usually I can't even talk!). At the end, I could have gone further, and I didn't feel like dying.

My foot? Started throbbing as soon as I stopped, but I had a smile on my face.

I now finally believe that I will have no problems crossing the finish line on Sunday. And yay for tapering! My longest run this week is 35 minutes :)