Friday, August 16, 2013

More than epic eighteen


Last night when I went to the store, I was  just starting my pre-long run freak-out, which is good to not freak all day.  but check out what I came out of there with:


I came home and just went ahead and got rid of my toenail.   TMI...  ya I know, but I'll tell ya, It made me feel like a real runner.  I tried to get the doc to do it, but I'm glad I did it myself. 
Our Friday run ended up being me, Lexie and Candi.  We met at 5 in the A.M. and headed out East.  Two miles before we hit our 18 mile mark we hit dirt road.  I think the unevenness of dirt road bugs the knee, so we drove back two miles, ran to the dirt road and turned about and went back past the car.   Oh but before that, We get out to run and it is pitch black...  I'm talking super dark.  The moon is no where to be seen to give us any sort of light.  There were even some slightly eery clouds overhead and....  the wind was howling.  Lexie and Candi both voted we get back in the car until it got a little lighter, I being the older, more grouchy member of the crew said that if we wanted to wait until it got lighter we should have done it in our beds. or i said I didn't get up this early to wait in the car...  ha ha..  Ya..  that's embarrassing but it happened.  so we ran along in the dark with the wind in our faces.  We actually were glad later, but it was a pretty scary first couple miles, not gonna lie.  So maybe unless we have headlamps and mace in hand, we should not go that early.  This is probably an hour after we started:


This run was good for while, but not as good as last week. Our Cardio was good the whole time, but the aches and pains were just kicking our butt. We have decided we need to stretch better... yes, this was necessary in the middle of our run:




And do more strength training!  We are going to get all the kinks worked out and have an amazing marathon!  I decided I needed to run the whole last (18th) mile, so I got me this flower for a trophy, tucked it in my belt and I did it.


I was so happy happy Happy to see this sign though, because if you notice, our cars are just past it.  Stop ahead.  Ok, thanks, I will!  18 down...  BaBAM!! 
-Becka
The rest of us did our 18 down that same lonely road in Johnson Canyon, but ours was the next day.  We had 12 people with us.  Some were doing 12 others 10, some did 20 (Lexi) and then some of us did the required 18 and STOPPED!   Getting 12 people organized and making sure that the cars were dropped at the right spot and the aid stations were at the right spots was pretty hard!  I did mess up on a couple aid stations, had too many at the beginning of our run and didn't have enough for the end of the run!  Plus I had one of the cars dropped at the wrong mileage place for one of the groups of runners.  It can get complicated! I enjoyed it though.  It was a great run and I actually felt great after I had to take 3, yes 3 potty breaks during the first 12 miles of the run! 
 The start line, where we tried to get a picture, but the light just wasn't working for us!
 The flowers were beautiful and the cloud cover was perfect!



I must say I was pretty nervous for 18 miles!! Probably because I could not believe I ran 17 the week before!! The morning started off crazy because it was rather difficult trying to figure out where everyone needed to be dropped off... We had a huge group of runners... Some nice, some not so nice hahaha.. (That's another blog post of its own).... Once we got started it was great! I had Great company and she kept me pre occupied, we talked the entire time! In fact I didn't even have my music on for the first 8 miles...! April wanted to run 10 miles because she is doing the Cedar Half with the rest of this crew and she has never ran that before (i was a little worried because earlier in the year i ran 8 miles with her which should of inly been 6 and she was not happy to say the least) Well we were having such a great time she actually did 15! 
Awesome picture to document the occasion! I'm so happy I was able to do this with her!!' She had big plans of doing the entire 18 with me, but come 15 she decided to call it! So the steak dinner Lax promised her turned into a veggie omlet and pancakes! It was probably a good idea she stopped at 15 because the poor girl couldn't get off the pot the entire day hahaha... Oh the Joys of running! 
April spotted this Not so lucky coyote...poor guy! I think he underestimated the fence! 

It was such a beautiful day! We had cloud cover all the way up to 17 miles! Couldn't ask for better running weather! 

At one if our aid stations I decided to stretch a little and I let out a big groan... Well this lovely cow thought I was "Mooing" and started "mooing" back at me hahaha and I was like "oh ya! What's it to ya you Big beef!"..... Anyway loved 18 and at the time I was excited for 19..... 


MaryAnn! This run was a deal for you and I feel bad but you navigated us all so well! It's a lot of work always trying to figure out when people need to be dropped off and where aid stations need to go etc.
I don't envy you! This run was great! Amanda came and ran this run and it was so nice to have a buddy. We kept a great pace and even plugged in to go faster.  There were so many different people on this run! It's cool that so many of us enjoy this! 
After Amanda was finished I just kept plugging along. I felt really good on this run and the time flew by! I wish that all my runs felt like this one. It was the first 20 miler I had ever done and I have to say at the end I was very emotional! I wanted to just stop by the car and cry but Bryant came up right when I was almost done and I felt stupid. I sucked up my tears and acted cool. :) I just can't believe the mileage that we are up to. Something I never thought possible for myself and it's pretty cool and rewarding to accomplish things that I never thought I could do!
I also got emotional on my way back when I came upon Ebbi & April! They were doing so great! April ran 15 miles! Just like that! She is amazing. I bet her a steak dinner if she could run the entire 18 with Ebbi. Well...she ran 15 but wow!!!!  I ran my first 15 just a few weeks before and she just came and ran 15 like it was nothing. I was pretty proud of those girls.  I ended up buying April breakfast because of how awesome that was. It was a good day! Goes down as one of my favorites for sure!

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