my first marathon!

I did it! I ran 26.2 miles in the Blue Ridge Marathon, "America's Toughest Road Marathon." It was pretty great.

My dad flew out to go to the marathon with me, and Friday we drove to Roanoke. After checking into our hotel we headed downtown to the packet pickup, where we got to see three famous runners. I have to be honest, I didn't know anything about them except I remember seeing Bill Rodgers in the documentary Run for Your Life. It was still cool to see them though. (They ran the race Saturday on a relay team, and I'm pretty sure Bart Yasso said some encouraging words to me on my way up the first mountain, but I could have been mistaken.)

Three running greats: Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, and Bart Yasso.

After checking out the little expo, we killed some time at a coffee shop and then went to an Italian restaurant downtown for dinner so I could eat lots of carbs. Back in the hotel, we watched the breaking news about the Boston Marathon bombing. The race had "Running for Boston" stickers and blue bracelets for us runners, so I put the sticker on my bib and wore the bracelet during the race.

My bib, with a "Running for Boston" sticker.

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:15 to get ready. I ate my banana and half a bagel with cream cheese and drank a cup of coffee in the hotel room. About an hour later I was ready to go, and we headed out! Dad dropped me off a couple blocks from the starting line downtown, and then he headed off to park and get himself to the one mile mark to watch me go by.

Since this race came so closely after the Boston tragedy, there was a very noticeable police presence along the entire course. Everyone seemed to appreciate the extra security measures and I heard tons of runners thanking the police as we ran.

Waiting at the start!

The temperature was in the high 30s at the start of the race, so after taking off my sweats and handing them over at the bag check I had several chilly minutes to wait to start. But the cooler temps were perfect once I started running! I think it only got into the mid-40s.

I'm ready for this.

Now to make sure we're all up to speed, the Blue Ridge Marathon has the trademarked motto "America's Toughest Road Marathon." There are three mountains: Roanoke Mountain, Mill Mountain, and Peakwood. According to the race's website, the 2013 course had 3,620 feet of elevation gain with a total elevation change of 7,234. But then rain was forecasted (and happened) on Friday so they switched to the "Flood Route," which meant instead of running along the river for the last few miles we had to run "inland" a little more which added about 206 more feet of elevation change. During my training I was always more concerned with the elevation gain, but after the race and suffering through all the downhills, I want to emphasize the full 7,440 feet of elevation change. (However, I will also point out that my Garmin GPS watch claims I only ran 26.09 miles with 3,490 feet of gain and a total change of 6,952 feet. I'm going to trust that was GPS error and stick with the higher numbers.)

Elevation profile according to my Garmin watch.

The race started at 7:35. They had a moment of silence beforehand to honor Boston, but unfortunately the speakers didn't broadcast all the way back to where I was so we didn't hear them and no one around me was silent. Halfway through the National Anthem people finally quieted down though. And then we were off!

Here we go! Running down Jefferson Street.

There was only one mile of relative flat before we hit the first mountain, so I went extra slow in the beginning to warm up. Pretty quickly we could see Mill Mountain ahead with the famous Roanoke Star on top. (It lights up at night!) The half marathoners would head straight toward the star, but us marathoners headed behind Mill Mountain to climb a higher mountain first.

Crossing the bridge on Walnut Avenue, looking up at the Roanoke Star on Mill Mountain.

Sea of runners coming over the bridge.

My dad was at the first mile, so I said "hi" to him on my way by and then started to climb...

On the Blue Ridge Parkway, headed up Roanoke Mountain!

I was not fast, but I was really proud of myself on this uphill because I didn't have to stop to walk! I had been nervous about how well my uphill training was going to stand up to the real deal on race day, so I was pleased to learn that my training worked! And to help distract myself from the hard uphills, I just had to look around at the beautiful scenery.

Loved the personalized mile markers!

Looking down on Mill Mountain.

We reached the top of Roanoke Mountain, the highest point in the race, at about mile 7. As I approached the water stop at the top with my camera in hand a volunteer saw me and ushered me over for a quick photo, my favorite of the day:

At the top of Roanoke Mountain!

I was able to pick up my speed a little bit on the downhills for miles 9, 10, and 11. Then we turned and headed up Mill Mountain...Once again I made it up without any walking!

Up close to the star on Mill Mountain.

But then? Then came more downhills. And those downhills hurt. I was slower going down than I was going up!

As I neared the bottom of Mill Mountain though I heard people call my name, and the most welcome sight ever was my friend S. with her boyfriend and dog on the sidelines cheering me on! It was a complete surprise to me that they drove all the way from Charlottesville for my race. And even better, S. hopped on the road to run a little ways with me! Mile 15 was the same spot as mile 1, so I also got to see my dad again since he'd hung around in the cold for over two hours waiting to see me come back by.

S. and me passing Dad at mile 15.

Say cheese.

I'm not sure where or when these things happened exactly, but S. and B. had left me to drive to a different spot I would be running by, and at that other spot B. and the dog ran along with me (on the other side of the road so the dog wouldn't be in anyone's way) for a few blocks.

B. and R. joining in the running fun!

Then I was alone again, heading up the third mountain. I had heard (or read on the internet) a lot of warnings about Peakwood, since it's a steep incline from mile 17 to 19 and you have to be careful to have energy left. I did end up taking two short walking breaks going up this one. Peakwood is a really nice neighborhood, and lots of people were out on their lawns cheering for us and even handing out snacks and drinks. At one point three small children were handing out water and I laughed when the little girls warned me not to take water from the eager toddler because "he drank out of that cup!"

Heading up Peakwood, the third mountain.

Once again coming down this mountain was pretty painful for me. I was still able to pass people going up, but several runners flew by me on this last major downhill. I tried walking down very briefly wondering if it would hurt less, but it didn't so I just kept jogging. When I got to the bottom S. was there again and she offered to finish the race with me. I was so grateful for her company during those last six miles.

Passing Dad (and our hotel) at mile 22.

At this point I was eager to be done, and didn't care much about looking around anymore, but I never hit a wall and never needed to walk. (Except I did stop briefly for drinks at a couple of water stops.) There may have been a little moaning and groaning though. Finally we were downtown again and nearing the finish. I passed my camera to S. and she sped around taking some shots of me as I neared the finish line.

Running next to a train. Roanoke is full of trains.

So. Close.

Finishing strong!

I'm up there, about to cross the finish line.

A welcome sight.

And then it was over! Obviously I was sore, but I wasn't injured and I was pleased with my time and overall it had been a great run.

Success!

My chip time: 4:42:35. Age group: 16 (of 33). Overall females: 50 (of 143). Overall: 216 (of 429).

These are my favorite race shirt and medal I've earned so far!

I am so happy I made this race my first marathon. It was definitely a challenge, but my training worked (thanks to my coach for his great training plan!) and I was well prepared. Sure I wasn't very speedy, but I was much more concerned with the mountains than with speed. This was the fourth Blue Ridge Marathon, and it was very well organized and had really great spectator support throughout the course. Plus net proceeds from the race go to the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and it's always nice when you know your race fees are going toward a good cause.

I'm not sure yet if I'll ever run this again, but I do see more marathons in my future...

training video

This morning I logged into Facebook and found that my friends had made me the best marathon-training video ever. It was a total surprise, and I think it's hilarious. Enjoy!

birthday!

Last Saturday was my birthday. It was kind of a big one, so I spread out the birthday love.

A week and a half before my birthday the girls in my small group surprised me with snacks and dessert with candles and wine.

The Thursday before Saturday I went to dinner with some girls to celebrate my birthday. We ate at Monsoon Siam and got to sit outside and it was great. Then we went across the street to see the David Wax Museum perform, and that show was so fun. A few of us also followed that up with a drink on the downtown mall. I was out until 1am on a work night, but the sleep deprivation was worth it.

Saturday I went for an 8 mile run, then a friend took me to lunch downtown. After that I spent many hours hanging out in the sun at the Tom Tom Festival listening to music and eating a gourmet picnic basket and having an all around great Saturday. That was followed by a snack at a restaurant with friends and more music.

Music at The Garage

Sunday I drove to Richmond, where my whole (Richmond) family joined me for lunch. Unfortunately we couldn't get one table to fit us all, but it was still nice to see everyone. That was followed by spending a few hours hanging out on my aunt's new deck. It was such a beautiful weekend and I was happy to spend most of it outside.

Lunch with my grandparents and aunt. (More family members were at different tables.)

 And finally, today at work a coworker brought cake to celebrate my birthday.

Thanks to all the friends, family, and coworkers who helped me celebrate and were willing to spread it out beyond the 13th!

more running and Easter

Last weekend I ran my longest distance ever, and the longest I'll do before the big marathon day. I drove west of town and went back and forth along some rural roads, including one portion that was all hills. It was a beautiful day and I was excited to get to wear shorts. I saw lots of animals along the way, too, including horses, donkeys, goats, chickens, and turkeys. I was feeling pretty good up until about 14 miles. Then I just had a painful and slow 8 miles more to go! But I did it. And I realized I'm going to need to get my mind shifted and back into the "I just want to finish" game and out of the "4:30 would be nice..." game. I'm getting worried the whole running-up-mountains thing might be harder and more painful than I thought. Which is dumb because I've known all along it's called "America's Toughest Road Marathon"!

After the run I took a very brief nap and then drove to Richmond, where I picked up Sunni and we went to see a live performance of Les Miserables. It was really good, and so fun to be there with Sunni. These days she is mostly caught up in boys and her phone, but she was giddy with excitement to see the show for the first time. She couldn't bring herself to agree that the show is much better than the recent movie (in which you get to see all those cute boys up close!), but she did agree the singing was better this time.

I spent the night in Richmond and the next morning was Easter. Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Richard, Sunni, and I all went to church together. Then we were back at the house getting ready for a big lunch. My aunt had made a cake in the lamb mold but said it was up to us to decorate the thing. So Uncle Richard and I got to work using icing to hold the thing together and dyed coconut to prop it up. Amazingly the head and ears stayed intact, but it was very precarious and Uncle Richard kept patting the poor guy with coconut and I would yell at him to stop patting it because he was going to break and he would just go on laughing and patting more. But the cake survived, and was delicious, and we ate it all.

After our big nice lunch and visiting with family I finally got to take a much-needed long nap. Then I hung out with Grandpa, Uncle Richard, and my aunt a little more before finally heading back to C'ville.

Yesterday I had another good but sobering run. I went to a different but even more beautiful spot west of town (where I again saw horses, cows, sheep, and turkeys) for my 14 miles. I was supposed to do a long warm up, then seven miles that got progressively faster, then a long cool down. And I did it all, and I was actually able to do the faster bits. But once I hit the cool down my legs felt pretty worn out and I still had three miles to jog back to the car! So I despaired a little more about the looming monster marathon coming up, but the truth is I am right on track and my coach knows what he's doing and he only wanted me to run the 14 miles and I really did manage to make it a true tempo run and I should be happy that I completed the workout and not despair that I couldn't run a marathon yesterday. Again, mindset really needs to shift into just feeling good about completing the marathon!

long runs

I know you're all probably sick of reading about my running all the time, but I'm gonna write more about it anyway so I can document the painful fun memories.

So several weeks ago (Feb. 23) I returned to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a second long run. This time there was no snow, I ran 19 miles, and I had a friend with me. She dropped me off at the start of the Parkway and I ran about 4.5 miles by myself, then she met me at a cross street (since the Parkway itself was still closed for the winter) and we ran about 10 miles together. The whole point of my going to the Parkway is to get in some long inclines (and declines), but I felt bad for her because I had several warmup miles that were flat, up, and down, but when she got out of the car and started running it was four miles up with no breaks. And that was brutal. The run felt so much harder than the last time I'd done it, but I think that's because I was going faster since there was no snow or ice to navigate. (And also because she always runs faster than me and I didn't want to slow her down too much.) At the end of her 10 miles she got back in the car and I continued on back to the entrance of the Parkway where she picked me up. Those last few miles were pretty rough, and I had to stop a couple times to stretch. The problem with stopping, however, is that starting up again is always hard when your body is that worn out. I always feel myself chugging slowly along in the beginning, like the wheels on an old locomotive before they get into a smooth rhythm and pick up speed. Anyway, I got my miles in and logged over 2100 feet in overall elevation gain, and it was really nice to have a running buddy on the Parkway.

A few weeks later (March 16) I ran my longest run thus far: 21 miles. I ran around Charlottesville but tried to make it as hilly as I could (though I'm still nervous that all my "hill" running is not really cutting it as far as preparing for long mountains in the marathon next month). Within the first ten miles I'd already gone up Observatory Hill three times, and I was ready to stop running. But I didn't. Those last eleven miles (with another two trips up O-Hill) were pretty miserable. So miserable, in fact, that there were times when I just started crying. But crying messes with your breathing, so I had to cut that out to avoid getting cramps. I thought a lot about how painful this run was (no shooting, injury pains though, thank goodness) and about how the marathon was going to be even longer and harder, but I never really considered stopping or quitting. I also wondered if I was nearing "the wall," but I don't know. I guess not? This run logged me over 2200 feet in elevation gain. The rest of the day was spent napping and laying on the couch.

And finally, yesterday I ran 14 miles around Charlottesville. I was supposed to work on making 10 of the miles faster, but I also wanted to get some elevation in, so I did O-Hill twice and tried to pick up the pace for the rest of it. I thought I was doing okay with my pace when I'd look down at my GPS watch, but the overall splits at the end didn't really reflect that as much as I would have liked. Oh well. That's part of why I chose to do this really hard mountainous marathon first—so I don't have to worry as much about my time! Yesterday's run was also capped off with a pistachio shell find!

Las Vegas v.4

So like I said, I went to Las Vegas almost two weeks ago with my family for our annual Nascar weekend trip. Here's how it went down:

Friday I got up super early for my 5:20am flight, and when I arrived in Vegas at 9:45am Ryan picked me up and we went to eat at a New Mexican restaurant filled with maps of New Mexico and Southwestern art. Then we checked into the South Point Hotel and Casino (located on Las Vegas Boulevard but a couple miles south of the strip) and took a nap. A couple hours later my parents arrived, and that's when we all headed to my packet pickup and dinner.

Saturday was my half marathon. After we got back from the race I showered and changed, then Ryan and Mom and I went to the Hard Rock for a great lunch at Culinary Dropout. I was starving after the race, but then I was stuffed after lunch. So it was time for a nap. That evening after Dad was back from the Nascar race, we all went to see the Gatlin Brothers in concert. There were two kids in the audience, and after them Ryan and I were definitely the youngest people there. It was fun though.

Sorry it's fuzzy, but look how happy we look! Even if Ryan is hiding his face as he takes the photo, and I am accidentally blocking Mom.

Sunday both Dad and Ryan went to Nascar, so Mom and I headed to the strip for some sightseeing. We started with the conservatory at the Bellagio, which had a springtime and butterflies theme.

Bellagio conservatory.

Butterfly house!

I love that Las Vegas has so many mosaics, like this one at the Bellagio.

Next we walked to the Paris for lunch, then to the Flamingo to look at real live flamingos. Then we took a break at Margaritaville and got to sit up on the outdoor patio because the weather was so nice, and from there we walked to Caesar's Palace to play some slots. Finally we'd killed enough time that Ryan and Dad were done with the race, so we went to the Monte Carlo to meet them and walked to New York New York for a good Italian dinner.

Giant slot machine at New York New York. Alas, he didn't win.

Later that night Ryan and I visited the ice bar at the Monte Carlo. They give you a coat and gloves (with upgrade options for a fur coat and hat, which we didn't spring for) and you go inside and drink out of ice cups and sit on ice seats and the whole thing is very cold but also pretty neat. (Or "cool," if you will.) I don't think I'd enjoy it if I were wearing a skirt and heels like most girls at night in Las Vegas, but I wasn't.

They wouldn't let us take cameras inside and they wanted twenty bucks to buy the photos they took. So here we are outside the bar after our freezing visit inside.

Monday we all went to an outlet mall, since that's how my family rolls on vacations. While there we enjoyed a big sushi buffet lunch. Ryan also spotted a professional wrestler at the buffet (I think it was this guy). When we got back to the hotel we had to take naps again, and then Ryan had to go back to Flagstaff which was very sad. Once he was gone my parents and I headed to the strip, where we watched the volcano erupt at the Mirage, had a drink at Treasure Island, and ate dinner at the Wynn.

The rocks are a "volcano" at the Mirage that erupted shortly after this photo was taken. Sure I have some shots with the fire and lava, but this one is prettier.

Hehe.

Love these mosaics at the Wynn!

Tuesday my parents and I went to Red Rock Canyon (where my half marathon was on Saturday). Dad and I hiked around on the red rocks while Mom drove around and took pictures on her own. The great thing about the red rocks is you don't have to stay on a trail, and you can wander wherever you want!

He's so strong.

 

Red Rock Canyon pistachio sighting!

 

 

Pretty desert.

After a little while we met back up with Mom and drove to a different spot, where Dad and I went for a 1.5 mile hike to a spring. The trail was really just an old road and was covered in rocks. A lot of rocks.

There are at least five bighorn sheep in this photo. Only they didn't really have big horns.

Once we reached the spring a man told us about a cabin just a little farther up, so we headed toward that but then a different man coming from that direction said it was farther than we thought, so we turned around. Poor Mom was just sitting in the car all this time and we didn't bring any water with us on this desert hike, so I was fine with turning around.

This was the spring (dammed up) at the end of the hike. Not the most exciting end-of-hike-destination, but oh well.

 

End of the hike! We survived.

Parents!

By this point it was mid-afternoon and we'd never had lunch, so we headed to Big Dog's Brewing Company for food and cold beer. Then we booked it back to the hotel so we could all freshen up and head to the strip for the evening. That's where we saw the Cirque du Soleil show Mystère, which was fun. Except watching all those acrobatics can really make one feel physically inadequate.

Tuesday was my last night in Vegas, so I ended the night by finally winning some money on the slot machines back at our hotel's casino. Up until that night I'd been losing left and right. (And by that I mean I lost, you know, like twenty bucks a day.) So that was exciting.

Another fun family Vegas trip on the books!

sighting sent in

My brother and his friends are touristing it up in the Southwest for spring break. (Luckyyy.) They sent this pistachio sighting to me from Bandelier!

Red Rock Canyon Half Marathon

Last weekend I went to Las Vegas for the annual family trip for Nascar. (But I didn't actually go to a race, only Dad and Ryan did.) Doing a little poking around on the internet beforehand I discovered that a marathon/half marathon would take place the same weekend, and it was definitely a race I wanted to do! Since I'm training for American's Toughest Road Marathon, I need to try and get lots of elevation change in my runs, and the Red Rock Canyon Half Marathon was a good fit. The course did a horseshoe loop on the road through the canyon, and had a cumulative elevation gain (according to my gps watch) of 1,525 feet. That's about half of what my marathon will have.

I arrived in Vegas Friday morning, and that evening my whole family drove out to the Suncoast Hotel and Casino so I could pick up my race packet and sign a form saying I wouldn't pet any tortoises. After dinner we all had an early night, since we'd be getting up super early! Mom volunteered right when I mentioned the race several weeks ago to come with me and watch, and it wasn't until Friday that I forced convinced Ryan to come, too. (Dad didn't come because he wanted to get to the Nascar track early, and he gets a free pass in my book because he's coming to watch my full marathon in April.)

So at 4:15am I woke up (Thanks to jet lag, it felt like 7:15 for me! Not so for my Arizona- and New Mexico-dwelling family though.) and headed next door to my parents' hotel room for my bagel, banana, and coffee. I woke Ryan up at 5:00, and by 5:40 the three of us were heading across town to the shuttle pickup at the Suncoast. They dropped me off but I had to wait ten or fifteen minutes for the next shuttle, and they followed in a shuttle for spectators about half an hour later.

According to my training schedule I was supposed to run fifteen miles that Saturday, which meant I had to run an extra two miles in addition to the half marathon. My plan was to get there early enough to do a two-mile warm up, but I only had time for 3/4 of a mile before I needed to take off my sweats, hand over my bag, make one last pit stop, and head to the start. Unfortunately the porta-potty line set me back a little, and I actually started the race about two minutes late. (Which is fine since they used chip timing, though apparently the winners were all based on the gun time.)

Okay, now for the race itself and pictures! Perhaps the best thing about this course is the scenery. Big open desert fills the center of the canyon and was always on my left, and red rocks and snow-dusted mountains surround the canyon. It had rained on Friday, but even though Saturday morning started out really overcast, it was dry. (Disclaimer: I took these pictures while running, so they may be blurry or tilted.)

Still in the visitor center parking lot, shortly after the start.

That sky looks ominous. Ryan hoped it would rain so he wouldn't have to come. It didn't.

The first 5.5 miles were mostly uphill. I was really proud of myself on the uphills, because even though I wasn't fast, I was able to keep chugging pretty well and pass people going up. I had looked at the course elevation profile ahead of time and thought the uphill would end at mile 5 though, so that last half mile uphill was sort of tortuous.

Look how pretty the mountains are!

Self portrait in motion.

After the scenery, the next best thing about this race is all the downhills! It's 5.5 miles up, but then 7.6 miles down without too steep of a grade, which made for some speedy miles for me. I still ended with my slowest half marathon time (this was my third half), but I felt really good about the whole thing and passing people on the uphills gave me more confidence about all this hill/mountain training I'm doing for my marathon. My official time: 2:00:46.99. Age group place: 8 (out of 54), gender place: 31 (out of 282), overall place: 125 (out of 496).

My mom took this as I crossed the finish line. I know the timer says 2:02 but don't forget I started late.

I was pretty beat after pushing through the last mile or so. Ryan was at the finish line and I had to grab onto him while they cut off the chip timer from my shoe.

After the race I drank some more water and ate half a banana, but then I headed out on the road to run another 1.25 miles to get me up to 15 for the day. Then we loaded onto the shuttle bus to get back to the hotel with our car. Overall I really liked this race. It was small and there wasn't a lot of crowd support due to the nature of the course, but the scenery made up for it.

Ryan complained a lot about having to get up so early to stand around at my race.

But really I think he enjoyed it. He got to hang out with Mom and later I heard he told Dad it was "beautiful" out there with snow on the mountains.

Thanks for the support family!

view halloo!

Today I drove west out of town a little ways for my twelve mile run in a rural neighborhood with farms and big estates. I had only run a mile or so when I came upon two people in fancy outfits on horseback, and just after passing them I heard a bunch of barking. "Could there be a real live fox hunt going on?" I wondered. But I didn't think much more about it and continued on my way.

Another mile or so down the dirt road, however, there was a bunch more barking. And then in the woods on my right I saw a big orange fox run by.

At this point I stopped running and started looking around at all the trees and wondering if I should try and climb one. I mean, a pack of hunting dogs was clearly headed right toward me. What if I distracted them from the fox and they came after me instead? What the heck was I doing in the middle of a fox hunt?!?

Luckily the dogs didn't pay me any attention, even though I was standing on the road maybe twenty yards away. They just kept going after that poor fox. Then the people on horses came by again, and when the man in the fancy red jacket passed I asked him if I was okay out there. He chuckled and hollered "you sure are!"

Photo taken with my phone. Wish I could have gotten a picture of the dogs too, but alas.

 That was a relief. And once I wasn't worried about being attacked by fox hunting dogs anymore, and had called my brother who informed me that they don't actually kill the foxes these days, I was able to appreciate the excitement of having just witnessed my first hunt, like in Mary Poppins! (Only there were no trumpet soundings, sadly.)

fingers crossed

A year ago today was when I injured my foot and couldn't run anymore. That was no fun. At all.

I was training for the same marathon I'm training for this time around, but this time around things are going better. For one, I started this training cycle with a stronger base, since I just trained for my November half marathon. For two, my training schedule is set by a real coach and not by something I found on the internet, and it doesn't make me increase miles every weekend. Sometimes I get a "rest week" which still involves running, just not as much or as hard. And for three, I'm pool running at least once a week, which supposedly gives me the same workout but is easier on joints and is supposed to help prevent injury.

So cross your fingers that things will continue to go well and I won't get injured again before April 20!

running firsts

Last weekend I went to Richmond to visit family, and while there I ran my ten mile long run. First I drove to the West End so I could run to the Museum District and the Fan. It was cold and even snowed a little, but nice to run in Richmond again. However, sidewalks aren't ideal for running, especially when they are uneven or brick. Makes it seem more like urban trail running. And that's what I'm going to blame my fall on. Sure it was getting dark, and sure I was tired because I was almost at the end of the ten miles, but still. That sidewalk caused me to trip. Trip and actually fall for the first time while running, which resulted in a bloody elbow, bruised shin, and frustrated emotions.

It stung more than anything. And oozed for a while.

 However, I am super grateful I didn't actually hurt my legs or ankles or anything. In fact, after sitting on the curb for a few moments to make sure I wasn't broken anywhere and to look around and make sure no one saw, I managed to jog the last quarter of a mile back to the car. And after getting back to the house and taking a long hot shower, I had my doctor grandpa there to bandage me up.

A week later I ran my longest run ever. Yesterday's seventeen miles was the first time I ever ran more than fifteen miles. Yikes. A friend joined my after two and a half miles and stuck with me for twelve, so that was fun. I warned her ahead of time I wouldn't be able to talk very much while running, but I could chat a little and she filled in the rest. I had plotted a pretty hilly route, and despite some tough hills the run felt pretty good. Good until she left me and I had about three and a half miles to go. Those last miles were rough, but I managed.