I ran 18 miles yesterday!

The route was similar to what we did for the 16-miler a couple of weeks ago, but extended a little bit. So the whole run was along the river path. I felt rested and energetic at the start. I was a little worried because it was already about 80 degrees by the time we started at 5am, but fortunately, it didn't get a whole lot hotter than that during the run. There were some scattered low clouds in the sky, not enough to make it feel like a "cloudy day" but enough to cover the sun and keep things cool (cool for summer in Tucson, at least). Even though we were running due east for Miles 3-11, the sun was never in my eyes. This was especially fortunate because I'd forgotten my visor! Even with coffee, it can be hard to think straight while gathering up one's running gear at 4:15am...

Coach Ashley ran with me for the first 9-ish miles of the run. Around Mile 5 or so, I noticed that my leg muscles were feeling quite fatigued already -- much more so than they normally would be after running 5 miles. I don't know why that was. It was definitely the type of pain I associate with fatigue, not the acute knee or ankle pain that I've occasionally gotten. Maybe my legs didn't appreciate the slightly longer run on Thursday? I wasn't underfueled or underhydrated -- I'd had coffee and a piece of toast before the run, and consumed plenty of Gatorade, salt, Sport Beans, and plain old water during the run. There was nothing to do but keep on going. I could tell it was going to make the later miles tough, though.

Around Mile 9, Ashley turned around to pick up some other runners who were a little ways back on the path, so I was on my own for the "back nine." That was definitely a challenge. The landscape along the river path is barren between Campbell and Craycroft (which is a 3 or 4 mile stretch of this route both on the way there and again on the way back), and especially when you're starting to get tired, it's hard not having anyone to cheer you on or at least distract you. Every now and then I would pass (or be passed by) a TNT mentor or coach, and that would keep me going. They would always make sure I was doing OK. A few times, I even got cheered on by non-TNT people who noticed my TNT jersey, which was really cool! Other than that, I mostly occupied my mind with people-watching, since there were lots of people walking, running, biking, and skating along the path. I was particularly cracked up by this one woman who was pushing a little pink baby buggy containing not a baby but her two teeny identical dogs. Ridiculous!

My legs and feet were pretty unhappy for the last 8 miles or so. I kept feeling unsure about whether I should do walk intervals or not, because while it gave me a little rest, it also hurt a lot to start up running again after a walk. I ended up running consistently during miles 11-15, and then taking several 1-minute walk intervals during the last 3 miles. I never let myself stop and walk indefinitely, though -- I would always choose a landmark up ahead where I would start running again. Those last few miles were really slow, even for the parts where I was running! There were several times when I noticed that I was mumbling audible encouragement to myself as I shuffled along.

I ended up finishing in about three-and-a-half hours. That shows how much slower my pace was on this run -- recall that it took me just under three hours to do 16 miles. It was a huge relief to get back to base camp, sit down, and stretch. Louanne, the marathon coordinator, always brings an ice-cold cooler full of washcloths, and it feels GREAT to mop down with one after a long run. I sat for a few minutes, and then hobbled back to my car to go home. The ice bath actually felt really good this time. I napped for several hours, and couldn't do much of anything the rest of the day except eat. I ended up falling asleep at about 8pm because it was taking way too much energy to even sit up.

Today I feel good. Legs are tired but not sore. I'm going to give them a good rest now so that they'll quit it with the muscle fatigue thing. I can't believe we only have one more long training run (20 miles in a couple of weeks) and then supposedly I will be sufficiently trained to run a marathon. Seriously?!