Long Run Thoughts

First things first, I DID IT!!! I ran 18 miles this morning!  I took my brother's advice and started off slow and it helped a lot.  Now I taper down until the Marathon in only 3 weeks!!!

I saw on Run, Eat, Repeat after Monica ran her last long run she posted her thoughts she had while running that long.  So I am going to do so, too.

Miles 1-5... Wow, I am running soooo slow.  But I am going to listen to what my brother told me, because obviously what I have done before didn't work out too well.

Miles 6-8...Okay 1/3 of the way through.  I can do this, I'm still going to stay slow and then pick it up at mile 9.  At this point Taylor Swift's Trouble came on Pandora and I thought of this version, which may or may not have had me laughing out loud.  And people may or may not have been around :)

Mile 9-12... Alright, let's pick up the pace now.  Oh wait, I can't :)  That's okay I just need to finish.  Then I totally hit a runner's high, and had glorious visions of finishing the marathon right at the same time as my brother as we hold hands crossing the finish line, and everyone cheers for the brother/sister duo that did a marathon together!  Then I felt like I could run forever.  Spoiler Alert:  (you will see that this feeling quickly changes)

Miles 13-14... Just did a half marathon, cool.  Now only 5 miles more, this will be easy.

Miles 15-17... Oh my goodness, when is this going to end???  My hips hurt, I am sweating down my back, and this is SO not fun anymore!  But, I am so so close, keep going, keep going, keep going.  (I also kept remembering Philippians 4:13 "I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.") 

Mile 17-18... I had to circle around my house 5,000 like three times because I wasn't all the way to 18 yet.  My dog was in the backyard so I tried to whistle to her.  Note to self, after running 3 hours it's very hard to whistle.  She didn't even care, she was too busy sitting in our firepit.  Cray.

I thought I would have like this awesome, incredible feeling when I was finished but I didn't.  I just felt sore and very thirsty!

Oh, I took a gu at mile 4.5, 9.5, and 14.  And drank 20 oz. of water by then end.  All in all it was a good run, and I am very proud that I was able to finish it.  Now I'm doing this for the rest of the day! 

Just chillin'

Any big plans for the weekend?