Weekend Run Wrap-Up

When we last left off I was getting existential about my diet coke experience and recovering from an embarrassingly early run Thursday morning. The rest of the day rounded out with two dinners (turkey avocado wrap with chips and chicken stir-fry), a trip to Yogurtland (peanut butter and red velvet yogurt with bananas, resses pieces and cinnamon toast crunch) and a bag (yes a whole bag) of kettle corn. Not a bad way to end a 12 mile day.

Friday nothing happened.

I went to work, I came home, I carbo-loaded for my run and was in bed by 9.

See. Nothing happening.

Then something weird happened. I slept 12 hours. Maybe this is a normal occurrence for some people, but my body does not generally let this happen. However, this also meant that I ended up starting my run way later than I had planned, which lead to my hardest, hottest run of this training cycle.

 

I ended up leaving my apartment by 9:30am and it was already nearing 70 degrees. The voice in my head told me I should only do half outside and finish the rest on the treadmill, but I talked myself out of it, refusing to do my last long run before the marathon indoors.

I ran almost 9 miles around my neighborhood before making it to the trail I've been running on lately. I kept thinking to myself  “I am pretty sure this wasn’t so hard last week”. I could feel myself draining fast as my thirst became harder to quench. I was simultaneously trying to drink enough water and ration my water for the whole run. I knew I had to get to 14.5 miles before I reached my turn around point, but by the time I reached 12 miles I felt DONE. I was so hot and miserable. I could tell that if I just had more water I would be doing fine, but there is no water on the trail. The craziest thing is even though I felt awful I kept going faster. My miles were coming in right around 9 minutes and I wanted them to be around 9:10.

It got to the point where I knew I was not going to make it through this run in the heat with the water and Gatorade that I had. Having run this trail before I knew there was zero water on it, but also that if I kept running forward instead of turning around I would reach a shopping center that had a few restaurants I could re-fill my water at. By the time I reached mile 14 I was feeling pretty awful. I started getting worried I was going to have to call Ben at work and beg him to come get me, but I was DETERMINED to not give up. This was my LAST long run before the marathon. I just had to make it through this and I would be on my way to taper time.

I made it to the shopping complex at mile 15 and ran straight to a Subway there. I got weird looks, but I went in and filled my water bottle and chugged it down. I refilled it, stepped outside and poured it over my head. I felt immediately better. After soaking myself through with the ice cold water I went back in and drank another half a bottle and then refilled the bottle again to help get me through the 7 miles back to the trailhead I had entered from.

Now I had the daughting task of running again in the heat after enjoying to wonderful feeling of cooling down. The first mile running back wasn’t bad. I was still wet from pouring the water over my head and it actually felt nice to be jogging in the breeze. The run got more and more torturous as it went on. It was a weird sensation in that I felt awful, but I was still keeping my speed up and still running each mile faster than the last. As the miles started winding down I started to doubt I could make it all the way to 22, mostly because of the amount of water I had left. I was drinking water or Gatorade every half mile and would still feel dehydrated every quarter of a mile.

I started doing the math in my head and I only had enough to get me to mile 21. This was a problem. Even when I made it to the trailhead I entered from I still had a 3 mile walk home in the 84 degree weather with zero water left, already dehydrated, with no water fill ups for at least two miles.

I made it to 21.5 miles before having to call uncle. I had about 3 sips of Gatorade left and zero water and I knew I needed to stop before I was 100% out.

Then I started the three-mile death march home. For about the first mile it was semi-shaded and I was doing okay. Then  I made a turn onto a street that had almost no shade and I started getting dizzy. Even walking I had to concentrate to make it to each landmark. At this point Ben was getting off work in about a hour and I was about a half hour from home. I thought about laying on the ground under a tree till he was done with work because walking was getting incredibly difficult. I also kept thinking an upcoming place would have water and then they wouldn't. I knew I would pass tennis courts and thought there would be water fountains. None. I knew I would pass a park and thought there would be a fountain there. Nothing. Eventually I was just 4 blocks from a gas station. I was just staring at the stop light not taking my eyes off it so I wouldn’t fall over. I felt awful. I was wheezing at this point and could barely breath even walking at a slow pace.

FINALLY,  I made it. I filled my water bottle up three times. Once again when I got outside I poured it over my head. Sweet relief. I felt immediately better, again. Megan called while I was finishing my last quarter mile walk and we chatted for a bit before I took a very dizzy shower and a 30 minute nap. I can’t nap more than 30 minutes after my runs – isn’t that somewhat odd? I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and eating.

This is how Veronica relaxes.

 The rest of my Saturday was awesome. Emily and Ryan came over for the BYU-Utah game – and although the game is still a sensitive subject in the household – it was really really fun having them there. We got custard and I got mine with like two cookies worth of coorkie dough on top. It was ridiculously good.

I woke up this morning at 6:30am ravenously hungry and ate four pieces of toast with cinnamon sugar, Pringles and tortilla chips and jelly (sounds gross, tastes amazing). After an hour and a half of eating I went back to sleep for a little before going on an easy 6 mile run. Now I’m enjoying a Once Upon a Time marathon, which is the perfect type of marathon to recover from marathon training.