Barely Legal: Running 18 Miles

It has been a tumultuous couple of weeks since my 16-miler. Lots of good, fun things. Also lots of stress and work with school. I even managed to pick up a shift at work-work.

To start, Halloween was uneventful, but it was followed by the beautiful wedding of my friend Stephanie.

And she had a photobooth there as well!

Pretty uneventful couple of days following that. I managed to make it to the polls on election day, despite scheduling difficulties.

I also took a brief trip to my hometown. I visited my friend Teddy and my grandmother, while enjoying the foliage.

I’ve been running quite a bit. I did actually have a terrible run while on my trip. I tested the limits of my treadmill tolerance and found them. I cut a 10-miler short to 9 miles, which is so rare for me. But as Jess says, you have to have a few bad runs to enjoy the good ones.

I actually had a panic-stricken weekend as I got stressed about all of the homework I had on top of the test (which is actually this Monday) and all of the other things going on in my life (like my 18-miler). But I took a step back, rescheduled a few things, and got my head back on straight. And I ended up having a great week!

My 18-miler was a bit of a strugglebus, however. I started out by driving the route and leaving water bottles and snacks for myself at strategic locations (3,6,9 miles). It was raining just the tiniest bit, but there was no rain in the forecast, so I decided to chance it. And it was cold. So I set off, and the rain picked up. I almost turned around. But finally it cleared up and I carried on.

The toughest moments were just before the 9-mile turnaround point and the 17th mile. At both of those points, it just seemed like the run would go on forever and I would never make it. All-in-all, it was a pretty flat route, not too many cars, and the temp was cold but not intolerable.

At the end, I was so happy to be done that I jumped for joy! But really, I was just sore and quite tired. I spent the rest of the morning recovering with food, an ice bath, and a shower. Then I got ready for a show that evening!

I met Rhea at the mall downtown where we grabbed a quick dinner and then walked to the theater. It was a great show, and so awesome to catch up with her.

Also, bonus walking around the mall, combined with my run steps, added up to over 45k steps…a new record!

But because I didn’t get home til after midnight, I slept in and just had time for a short recovery run before Rebecca came over for some Doctor Who.

The rest of this weekend will be spent studying, running, and heading to a Mexican-themed birthday party.