One of my running buddies is training for her very first Marathon so she asked if anyone would run 10 miles at 4 am (crickets). Well, after much choice words and numerous discussions, seven crazy ladies including myself stepped up to the challenge. I never committed publicly about attending but secretly talked my running twin into doing it with me and she did hesitantly. I won her over by letting her know we could do interval training since neither of us had ever run beyond 6.2 miles. On last night, I upped my bio-freeze application on my knees, iced my knees, increased my glucosamine and prayed numerous times over them. We were so nervous about the additional four miles we did not ease into that I prayed over both our knees when the other ladies took off running.
End results:
We ran the entire hilly route without stopping and completed 10.35 miles in 1:48 minutes. Of the eight of us that ran this morning, it was
only one other lady that never ran so far and we managed to finish well before
half of our crew. It was a challenge during the last 1.5 miles which had two
never ending hills and then we ended on an incline. The bad part about it is getting more bullying about doing in half marathon ASAP. The Lead Ambassador of Black Girls Run! nicely brought it to my attention that 'she know of less than a handful of distant runners who are able to run 10 more less 10.35 miles under 2 hours so I'll be signing up and running a half this year. She said she's not listening to me complain or whine about 13.1 miles after killing those miles and finishing at least 12 minutes quicker than most people without training" (sigh).
They say running is mental;
and I agree because that is exactly what got me through that long, early and
hilly run. Will I do it again? Sure, assuming I do not wake up in the middle of
the night to finding I'm actually running in my sleep while still somewhat
asleep. Try dreaming you're running then wake to find yourself sweating because
you were running in a laying position only to realize you have 10 more miles to
run and it will be on the pavement. I also pushed through by focusing on all my older and younger relatives that were/are track stars and or number one athletes. My dad brought it to my attention this week about younger cousins holding the current title as the best cricket and or soccer players in their respective countries (that helped a lot this morning).
Never let your mind tell your
body what it cannot do..test your abilities sometimes~;)!
