Marathon Madness Monday: Week 15 - Bear Water 20 Mile Race Recap

Wow, getting really close to week 18, which is marathon week! Yikes!

The beginning of this week was not so great for me, running-wise. I had to cut my Wednesday night run short because it was starting to get dark... For some reason, I feel safer running in the dark in the a.m. than the p.m. Maybe I feel like the crazies don't come out between 5-6 am? So I cut that run short. Then I completely skipped my Thursday run because I was just way too exhausted to get up and run at 5 that day. That morning, I actually got up, put on my running clothes, and then looked in the mirror and said, "nope, can't do this today." And then I went back to bed, in my running clothes. Stellar.

So my mileage was super, duper low for the week... But I knew I had a 20 miler on Saturday so I decided to cut myself some slack.

My legs apparently responded well to not running much this week because my 20 miler went wonderfully! I was pretty nervous that morning... and then I got a little lost. Australian Lee really needs to step it up and stop getting me lost. Once again, I blame the fact that I was in 'lake country' so the roads were winding and there were seriously 3 different roads that were labeled as "County Road 96". Um, how is my GPS supposed to know which one to turn onto? Seriously? And why would County Road 96 also = Highway 61. Seriously?

I digress.

Anyways, luckily I budgeted "Lisa gets lost" time into the morning so had plenty of time to pick up my race number and stretch before the race started. Phew.

Here is a break down of how it went!

Mile 1 - 9:13
Mile 2 - 9:17
Mile 3 - 9:29
Mile 4 - 9:13 (took my first Gu* at this point)
Mile 5 - 9:36
Mile 6 - 9:28
Mile 7 - 9:48
Mile 8 - 9:25 (2nd Gu)
Mile 9 - 9:52
Mile 10 - 10:03 (stopped to go to the bathroom so lost some time here)
Mile 11 - 9:33
Mile 12 - 9:37 (3rd Gu)
Mile 13 - 9:47
Mile 14 - 9:33
Mile 15 - 9:52
Mile 16 - 9:49 (4th Gu)
Mile 17 - 10:16 (starting to feel fatigued at this point)
Mile 18 - 9:42
Mile 19 - 10:23
Mile 20 - 9:25

Totals - 20 miles, 3:13:40 (per my Garmin), average pace of 9:40

*For non-runners, Gu is this sugary gel that I eat. I eat the Vanilla Bean flavor, which I think is pretty delicious. It's sort of like eating frosting in a gel form. Sounds kind of gross, but it's decent...


My goal was to finish in 3:20 so I am VERY pleased with how the run went. One of my co-workers had another friend running this race, so she came out to watch and saw me right when I had finished miles 10 and 16. She ran with me for a bit each time she saw me, which was really awesome!

When I saw her at 16, I told her I actually felt really, really good. On Friday, a co-worker had asked me when I started to feel 'fatigued' during a run. I said maybe around mile 13 or 14? Well on Saturday, I was still feeling great at mile 16. I probably jinxed myself by talking about that because the fatigue started to hit me around 17. I started to feel those miles in my hip flexor and knees, but after stretching at the water stop at mile 18, I felt much better.

I was tired when I crossed the finish line, but I could have done another 10k. I hope I feel this good on marathon race day! I was pretty tired/sore on Sunday, but I don't think I 'over did' it as I felt like I was running at a 'comfortable pace' the whole time.

I am relieved that this run went so well. Truth be told, I was sort of struggling in the confidence area this summer after some not-so-great runs. But now that I've had great 18 and 20 milers, I KNOW I can do this marathon and there is a very good chance I will PR.

I have another long run coming up this weekend - I plan on do something around 16-20. Then it's taper time! The end is in sight - which means my meet-up with Amber is just around the corner! So excited!!

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Training Tally:
Miles ran last week: 28 (pretty pathetic, but I'll take it...)
Training-to-date mileage: 404