whoa, i cannot believe that i have finished peak mileage leading up to the chicago marathon – completing 20 miles this past weekend. and let me tell you, it was NOT easy! i was so nervous going into this run. literally every doubt you can think of, i thought of it…”could i do it, i can’t believe i have to run over 4.5 hours, am i ready to run this much?” but ultimately, i knew that i had put in the mileage and it was something that i had to get done. because trust me, my motivating factor was the fact that if i didn’t get it done this past weekend, then i would have to just do it the next weekend (and who would want to do that over a holiday). definitely a driving motivator for me.
now remember when i said it wasn’t easy – definitely not an exaggeration. from waking up at 3:00am to having to battle the lovely florida heat and humidity, at times i didn’t know how i was going to make it to 20 miles. honestly, this run really taught me to listen to my body and not to over push yourself – which as a former athlete can sometimes be a difficult concept to grasp. i had felt pretty good up until about the half marathon mark – that’s when the affects of the humidity really kicked in – to the point that when i got to mile 16, i decided that i needed walk the entire mile. it’s so hard to explain but at that moment, i felt like i was having an out of body experience and i just needed to get my body back into a groove. and it’s exactly what i needed because after that mile, i felt back to normal and carried on.
at the end of the day, it wasn’t my best run. however, there is still a positive of not only finishing 20 miles, but simulating running for a lengthy period of time – especially knowing that my marathon will be at least be a hour longer than what i ran this past weekend. and thankfully, i had incredible friends who literally took shifts throughout the morning to help support me throughout this run. the motivation and support they continuously had was exactly what got me through those miles, especially towards the end.
but now, it’s time to taper. i had planned my running schedule based off knowing how my body recovers from prior injuries, so my 20 miles were definitely earlier than most normal training plans. that’s one of the biggest things i’ve learned during this process, everyone has such a different way of training and one shoe definitely doesn’t fit all. but that’s the beauty of running, you can customize your training specifically for you!
now i can’t believe that the race is less than 40 days away! we are almost there fellow marathoners.
until next time
xoxo
kpmoments 