17 miles- Holy SH*IT!

Ran the furthest I've ever ran last Saturday morning. Two weeks ago I completed the same feat at 14 miles, last week it was 17!!

                      

The morning started off CRAZY. I couldn't find my hydration belt, when I did I realized I only had 1 clean bottle for it; the others must have been buried underneath the dishes in the sink (most hated chore). I grabbed 1 GU- espresso flavored (the only flavor I really like),1 Vanilla yogurt NuGo bar, and some Juicy Fruit gum.

I was so tired when I got up I really debated not going but then decided I didn’t have enough time to back out on Tabatha on facebook; if she never saw it and waited for me at the park I would have felt terrible. Tabatha is a new running friend I just made on the Just Us Girls and Guys forum on FB, it’s a local group that means every Saturday morning rain or shine. Some of those ladies are just straight up AMAZING! I’m normally one of the youngest every time I go but those ladies bring it, and I can only hope I’m as hardcore as they are when I reach my 40’s, 50’s and 60’s! Anyway so I sucked it up and met Tabatha at the waterfront park. She had this crazy route planned where we were literally running from one town to another and back. The way the route looked on a map actually intimated me more than the fact that it was 20 miles and going to cost me over 3 hours of my life. I totally want to blab all about the cool thing we talked about and about how she just ran her first marathon, has 6 kids, and can run crazy distances without water, but I don’t want to tell someone else’s’ story so I’ll stick to the details of the run :P

Bremerton. Running over the further bridge was part of my route.

The first couple miles were really good, the pace was comfortable and the route fairly flat. I was introducing her to intervals though, so it was kind of weird because I live and die by my watch and I know not everyone likes taking “breaks” but it really has in all honesty increased my stamina and speed. Before intervals I would NEVER have thought of running further than a half! Probably about 6 miles into the run we starting hitting some hills and I started to just not feel it. some days I feel really powerful and kill my run, other days I drag through complaining the entire time. Three miles later I mentally was in a rut. We stopped at a mini mart for me to refill my water and the asshole behind the counter turned us away. He gave us some shit because we didn’t say “please” but I wasn’t rude, I just simply walked in and said “Hi. We’ve just run almost 10 miles; do you have a fountain we can refill my water bottle with?” If he had said yes then of course I would have thanked him. Instead I walked out of the store saying I would never stop there for anything EVER. We then ran down to a Chevron? I don’t remember it was some chain gas station and the lady there let me refill even though she gave me the stink eye. I don’t get it, what’s wrong with free water…my bottle was like 6 oz! Tabatha really had to use the restroom but they had a big huge sign no public restrooms so we just moved on to our next stop, The Tracyton tavern. They were super sweet and let us use the bathroom no problem. I noticed they have $1 taco Thursdays so I will be trying that out sometime as my own little way to say thank you, support a local business (even if it is a bar), and satiate my constant appetite for Mexican food.

Route and Elevation Profile

                                                        

After that I’d like to say I felt better but motivation was still a little in the dumps. We were getting closer to my neighborhood but were still several miles from where the car was parked. I remember looking at mywatch at 14.25 miles and having a mini celebration that I had beat my previous distance, and then at 15.25 I was less than 1/2 a mile from my house with almost 2 miles to go. I just kept thinking the last mile is almost all downhill or flat, "I can do that!" and I did! At exactly 17 miles I told Tabatha I wanted to do a cooldown walk. Whew, COMPLETE!

Then in true Marissa fashion I couldn't find my keys and had to call James to come get me. And in true James fashion he pulled my keys right out of my hydration pack, oops :)