St. Patty's Day Hell

I woke up at 4.30 am on Saturday to prepare myself for my 20 mile run. I was a bit more excited about this run because a friend wanted to try to run with me! We set out at 5 a.m. My plan was to get 15 miles knocked out before 8.30 am...b/c I was running the last 5 in the St. Patrick's Day Parade Run.

It was pretty foggy outside and humid. But we took it nice and slow and it was really nice to run with someone. I usually get bored after a while of running on my own. My friend made it 3.5 miles before he turned around and I carried on by myself. I got to 7 miles when I first started to feel pain in my knee. I figured I didn't want to run that far away from home again, so I hopped in my car, drove my butt to the YMCA and did 7.3 miles there. I was in a hurry because I still needed to go home, change (I was a sweaty mess) and make it to the race start line. My knee was bugging me, but I thought it wasn't going to be a huge issue.

I was at the starting line by myself (I couldn't find my friends because the race was so huge)... and I was scared. The farthest I've ever ran before was 15 and now I was going to do 19+. That's a huge jump for me. The race started out good. I kept a nice slow pace. I even managed to run the first hill (I saw a lot of people walking it). But after 1.5 miles, my knee went from bad to fucking bad. I decided to walk for a bit, but that didn't help. I know I looked ABSOLUTELY miserable. People probably thought I was terribly out of shape and I was kinda embarrassed about that. Anyways, I kept on and tried to run some more. Then we got to a huge hill and I just decided to walk it. My knee was really starting to piss me off. I couldn't even run on the huge downhill. I got so mad at myself, I started to cry. My knee felt way worse than ever before and I kept telling myself there is no way I will be able to complete this marathon. I kept walking...and would try to run on it but that didn't last long. I did muster up enough strength to jog the last .7 miles and although it hurt, it was bearable. I was pretty pissy after the race and literally laid on the couch all day.

I'm kind of embarrassed at my finish time in the race, but oh well, it is what it is. I accomplished 19.4 miles!!!! And that I am happy for! I know the marathon isn't going to be easy, I expect pain and that's okay. I plan on doing 18-20 this weekend and then I'm going to start to taper. I'M SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT! Ha.

Splits from St. Patty's Day Run: (see, horrible)

So even though it was broken up and I ran outside in the dark w/ friend, in the gym on a treadmill and at a packed race, my time for 19.4 miles was 03:34:16. Average pace: 11:03.