Deuce Deuce

Let's begin this post with visual evidence, shall we?


You see, my friends, that is our Garmin [a GPS running watch sent straight from the gods]. It reflects the fact that Nate and I ran nearly 22.5 miles on Saturday morning. Can I get a, "Holy Crap!" from anyone?

Ignore the fact that I look deranged in the last picture. I wanted to fully capture my feelings after this run and I think I managed:)

Here is a generic picture of us after the run. Can you see the grimy salt on our faces?

So you want to hear details then?

We ran with the same running group that I've frequented for a few weekends now, but finally Nate was able to attend with me. We had the choice between 20 miles [which is what our training program calls for] or 22 miles [which is what the running group suggests to make the race itself easier]. We were gunning for 22 but promised ourselves to stop at 20 if we were dying and with that, we were off to run for nearly 4 hours.

We did not wear our iPods for this run and it's been awhile since Nate and I ran a long distance together. Sometimes we have nothing to say and we'll run in silence the whole time. But on this run we were complete chatter boxes and it was so.much.fun. Seriously. We talked about where we want to vacation in the future, if we would ever run another marathon [we are thinking probably so----or at least some halves], work, school, family. We also spent a decent amount of time talking about Keri since she was weighing so heavily on both of our minds. It was quite therapeutic for me to pound out my thoughts on that pavement and I was grateful Nate was there to listen and support me. I'm having a tough time accepting this potential new fact about her cancer and I just needed to vent a bit. And that's all I will say about that right now.

We stopped for 8 water/nutrition breaks along the way and we didn't stop our clock because they were pretty quick. Our pace averaged just under a 10 minute mile by the end, which is a lot slower than some of our shorter runs---but I'm okay with it, I guess. For the majority of the run we were clocking a 9:30 minute mile but we slowed down as the pain increased:)

I did a much better job of staying hydrated and eating my Sport Beans/Powergel [Strawberry Banana is the only decent kind, I swear!!] and I could tell a huge difference this time. I can honestly say that the run was not THAT bad.....and it was a heck of a lot easier than the dreaded 15 miler in Missouri. I kept a positive attititude and did not allow my mind to panic. When it came time to decide between 20 and 22 miles I really wanted to push for 22, and Nate agreed [or so I thought]. The last 4 miles were really tough and my knees felt like they were about 70 years old. But we did it and I've never been more proud of us.

After the run I was happily chatting with Krista when Nate announced that he needed to go home. Right now. He also tossed the car key at me saying, "I think you better drive," and I could tell by his furrowed brow that he was officially done. As we hobbled to the car I asked if he was okay and he replied, "I don't know." Hmmmm, that's not good. Then he said, "I should NOT have done that," meaning the 22 miles versus 20. Of course, Mr. Tough Guy didn't say anything during the run because he wanted to 'push himself.' So until he got his nap and coffee he was quite the treat, as you can imagine:)

Speaking of fluids, this is not a joke:

Chocolate milk [we heard it was the perfect ratio of protein to carbs for recovery?], Gatorade, water, and coffee all consumed simultaneously makes for the perfect hydration plan:) Please note how unimpressed Henry seems in the background.

Also, please look at the bottom left screen from our Garmin:

Calories burned: 3627. Holy crap! Of course, this is set for Nate's weight so I burned a little less than this but it's no wonder we shovel massive amounts of food into our bodies after a run. And now you understand one of marathon training's perks----eating guilt free. Pretty insane, huh?

Now that we've had a few days to recover we are walking less like cripples and more like humans again. You should have seen us try to go down our stairs yesterday---it was quite the spectacle. But now we are in the home stretch for training: just four more weeks! We'll taper our runs to 16, then 12, then 8 on the weekends leading up to October 5.

And on that date, Oprah better watch her back:)