Eighteen Wheelin'

So I ran 18 miles on Sunday.

Let me say that again. It still sounds crazy to me.

I ran 18 miles on Sunday.

Karen and I were going to meet some of our fellow Run Clubbers at the gym in St. Paul. We were going to run 11 miles together and then Karen and I were going to split off and do the final 7 miles on our own. But due to a "glitch in the system" (and by "system" I mean our brains, which failed to have us commit to a meeting spot) we didn't run into them at the club...so we ran the entire 18 by ourselves. Not a huge deal...at least we had each other!

I decided to wear my water belt (with three small bottles) so I'd have something to wash down my gels. I thought three bottles would be plenty - I hadn't needed much water in any of my long runs so far. Karen went belt-less and water-less (as I type this, the warning bells are going off in my head. How could we have thought this was a good idea??).

The first several miles were great. It was a gorgeous day and we were in the groove right away. We stopped for our first gel at mile five and then kept on trucking.

But at mile nine, disaster struck. Just kidding. At mile nine, I felt that I was wearing a hole in my new ACL. Kidding again. At mile nine, I started to feel some pain in my knee. Not unbearable, but it definitely sucked. The worst pain came after we would start running again after stopping for gel or water (note to self: If it hurts to start running...DON'T EVER STOP).

This continued into mile 12...at which point we ran out of water. "No problem," we thought, "we'll just fill up at this handy water fountain."

WRONG. The water fountain was shut off. Crap. So we had to suffer through the final 6 miles with no water. NOT a good idea.

Surprising no one, it started to suck really bad at mile 16. I should have taken a third gel at mile 14, but didn't because we didn't have water. I was tired. I was dehydrated. And so we started adding walk breaks. Which, honestly, kind of crushed my spirit. I know that a lot of people like to take walk breaks. Look how much success the Galloway program has had! But walking makes me feel like less of a runner. It makes me feel like a poser. I don't like taking walk breaks. But I had to. So I did.

And in the end, we finished 18 miles. We Ran 18 Miles. Because we are hardcore and because we are RUNNERS.

4/13/08
Mile 1: 10:15
Mile 2: 10:24
Mile 3: 10:24
Mile 4: 10:18
Mile 5: 10:31
Mile 6: 10:12
Mile 7: 10:02
Mile 8: 10:17
Mile 9: 10:32
Mile 10: 10:43
Mile 11: 11:08
Mile 12: 10:47
Mile 13: 10:59
Mile 14: 10:40
Mile 15: 10:24
Mile 16: 10:39
Mile 17: 11:29
Mile 18: 13:06

Average pace: 10:43
Total time: 3:12:59
Average HR: 164

Three words to describe this run: LONG, Thirsty, Exciting

Lessons Learned: HYDRATE. Bring more water than you think you need. Don't eat junk food the days before your long run - it will affect your performance.