week 10, day 4

So the weather turned out to be beautiful for running!  No rain at all - it was nice and sunny (a bit windy at times, but def better than rain!).  I ran the entire 17 miles solo today.  It was better than I envisioned.  I started out feeling amazing.  I made it 5 miles to my parents - had some jelly belly sport beans then headed back toward my house for 5 more miles.  I tacked on a little 1 miler then went back to my house for some gu chomps.  Next, I headed out for one of my 3 mile loops.  This was a bit rough but once I was half way finished I was feeling good again.  I definitely went through waves of feeling good then bad throughout this run.  I dropped my camelbak off at my house and ran another one of my 3 mile loops (the last 3 of the day).  I felt like a brand new person without the camelbak.  It's funny because it wasn't bothering me as I was running, but once I took it off I felt so much better!  I was practically sprinting the last 3 miles.  Then during the last mile my left knee was killing me!  This knee definitely bothers me more than my right knee, but it was screaming at me by this point.  I changed up my stride and kept going.  Overall it was a good run - no crying, which is amazing!  Even though, sometimes it feels good.  I added some new songs to my playlist (new to my playlist, that is), which is always fun (money grabber, rolling in the deep, young folks and born this way)!  When I got back I was feeling a bit out of it, but I drank some water and gatorade and stretched.  This def helped.  Then I got ready for my first ice bath.  A friend of mine (who is an awesome runner and great inspiration) encouraged me to tackle these.  She said for her first marathon she didn't do them and was sore for 2 weeks.  She did them for her second marathon and was back to running in 3 days.  That is how she sold me.  So Brent got me two 5lb bags of ice.  I put on my running shorts, a tee shirt, long sleeve shirt and hoodie.  I made myself some coffee and brought my book.  Well let me tell you!  It didn't matter what I was wearing, that I had coffee or a book because I could not concentrate on anything except for how much pain I was in.  My toes and achilles tendons were hurting so bad!  She had suggested that I keep moving my toes - I couldn't bear to move them.  I can't even describe the way that I felt.  Brent had set the timer for 20 minutes for me.  I was dying to look at the time, but instead I encouraged myself to read my book.  So I picked it up, but only to put it back down.  I didn't even open it - LOL!  Seriously I couldn't do anything.  I wanted to cry and scream all at the same time - I couldn't do either!  It was such a weird feeling.  So I caved and looked at the time - I still had 11 minutes left.  So I yelled for Brent hoping that would help distract me.  He came up and I asked him how much time was left, ha!  I still had  9 minutes to go.  I kept saying I can't do this!  But at the same time I couldn't get out either, so somehow I lasted for 4 more minutes - a total of 15 minutes.  My friend recommended 15-20 so clearly I was not staying in there for 20!  LOL!  I got out and my legs were so red and numb.  I stripped off my wet clothes, dried off, stumbled to my bed and got under the electric blanket.  I was not warming up as quickly as I thought I would.  I was shivering and my lips were blue.  Eventually I took a hot shower and got back in bed.  I started to warm up more, but my lips were still blue.  When I woke up I dried my hair and got some food (white cheddar popcorn and a baked potato with butter and cheese).  Finally I felt warm again - about an hour later.  I really want to be able to continue ice baths, but I just don't know how I'm going to convince myself.  Next week is 18 miles so we'll see if a week is enough time for me to forget how bad it hurt, ha!  I have to admit today I really started thinking to myself, what the hell am doing?  why do I think running 26.2 miles is a good idea? who do I think I am? I decided to reward myself with dinner at Carraba's.  It was perfect!  Now that I am hydrated and dinner is digested I feel like I can do this.  I'm not in pain anymore - well my knees are bothering me a bit, but at this point I feel like it's been a normal Saturday.  This is def a good sign, right?  It's mind over matter and clearly running by myself for almost 3 hours affected my mind.  I can do this and I will do this!  Today's run totaled 17 miles in 2:50:33 (10:01 miles).

237/463 (more than halfway finished mileage!)