Auntie Em Goes Running

Victoria Marathon plus five miles done!  Wow, what an interesting experience running it all at "easy" pace.  I figured my 50 mile pace will be about 12 minutes/mile, so I wanted to run this whole practice 50K at that pace.  I started exactly an hour before the marathon start, which was easy, because it didn't start until 8:45, ran for 4.8 miles, and jogged into place in the back of the marathon start corral.  I was carrying my 1.5 liter fluid/nutrition backpack, since that is what I'll carry during the 50 miler.  I wanted to practice with it earlier, but was pool bound, so this was actually the first time I carried the backpack while running.  It is nifty, though, with hydration tube, plus plenty of space on the back to tuck a hat, gloves, or even a jacket.  There are little pockets on the front for snacks and stuff.  I carried some homeopathic electrolyte packets, some acetominiphin in case my ankle hurt, and some sports beans in case I got really bored.  the fluid in the back had 1200 calories in it, so I figured that would be plenty of nutrition.

I jogged along yakking incessently to other people, trying to pass the time.  I just kept thinking "you'll be out here a long time, enjoy it".  It was kind of funny, because I was chattering to people who really couldn't chatter as much in return, because they were working harder to run.  I kept asking if I was bothering them, but they all loved the entertainment!  I found myself getting a little desperate if I felt myself pulling ahead of folks I was getting to know because I didn't want to get bored.  I circled back a few times to relocate my favorites.  By the half point, I did pull ahead, just because some of the ladies I was running with were slowing.  I was at about 11:20 per mile, and was happy with that, so I just went.  Immediately I started picking up the pace, so to stifle that, I caught up with an older man, and ran with him awhile.  He was 74 and doing his 56th marathon!  Wow!  By the time he took a walk break, I was at marathon mile 18 and 50K mile 23, and was going to meet my hubby in 2 miles, so I ran alone.

At marathon mile 20 and 50K mile 25, Greg was there waiting for me, and just fell in beside me, told me I looked great, which I am absolutely sure was true.  I had been sipping at my hydration tube all along, and felt like I was doing well with nutrition/hydration.  So far, no ankle pain!  This was beyond belief to me; I was really afraid, but ready, to have to give this one up if I was injured.  And I really had no idea if I was injured or not, since I hadn't run in almost 4 weeks!  By mile 24, there started to be some tight feeling in the ankle, stiffness really.  By the middle of 24, I took some short walk breaks, stretching out the calf with my stride.  This helped a lot.  I never really hit any sort of wall, probably because of my pace, but I was getting tired, and was really happy to see the finish line.  Sprinted the last 500m as hard as possible, really picking it up the last 100m.  I really couldn't help it.

I guess if I can do 50K, I can do 50 miles.  I am still kind of in disbelief that I could do this at all with just pool running and no tapering, and the ankle.  Grateful is what I am. And, all along I was feeling so good about consuming my nutrition, but when I took it out of the backpack later, I found I had only drunk about 1/4 of it!  Total running time was 5:42 and change.  My goal was 6 hours, so not too bad!

Mountain biking.  Would have ridden the rode bike, but its kind of wet and muddy at the moment, so mountain biking seemed more appropriate.  Went a yoga class in the evening, and did some core work and upper body weight stuff at home.

Easy run.  Hohum.  Ready for more.  I feel recovered.

Yoga this evening again.

I will be traveling starting Thursday, so my posts will appear as comments again.  Should be lots of exciting running, though, Viet Nam is in monsoon times, and wet wetwet.