16 Miles O’Fun

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Happy Friday!!!! Again, I think we all feel the opposite today: you’re excited it’s Friday and I’m sad that it means one day closer to summer being over! Ahhhhh! Haha oh well, it can’t last forever!

For those of you who follow me on twitter and instagram, you probably know I had a 16 miler that I needed to run last weekend, and I had to do it on Monday because of my schedule last week. I had wanted to do it on Saturday morning with some other girls at HLS, but legs and knees were soooooo sore from my hike on Thursday that I knew it just would not have been a good idea!

Since I got in late Sunday night I decided to just not set an alarm and then get up, get ready, and go whenever I woke up. I ended up heading out around 8:20am, which I was fine with since it was pretty cool on Monday. I actually got really excited when I saw it might rain! Although as I headed down the lakefront path towards Navy Pier it was very windy and started to rain and I could hear the thunder in the distance. At that point I turned around a little early and decided to head further North than I’d planned.

  

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So far this all sounds nice and jolly, but let me tell you: it was ROUGH. My legs were exhausted from all the walking around I had done all weekend, and tons of it on Sunday with Sara! It was a blast but definitely not the best idea for a pre-long run day (learned my lesson for the marathon: mom and dad I will NOT be walking around Chicago! Perhaps Molly can pull a skate board that I can sit on…).

Anyway, by about mile 3 I felt like I had already run 12 miles. I had to really push myself mentally to get through the run. At 4.5 miles I stopped for a Cliff Shot. I picked this up at a water station the week before during my CARA run because I wanted to try Vanilla (and I’m cheap). I loved this flavor!!

I also took another one around mile 9. I try and get in fuel started at 4.5 miles, and then each 4 miles or so after that. So far I’ve only gotten up to about 300 calories of fuel (100 3 times) but we’ll see what I do for the 18 miler. This is crazy – haha I used to barely take 1 for my long runs. I actually discussed this with a friend at HLS this weekend. I used to count long run days as “extra calorie burning” days. I’d actually try and take in LESS calories these days because I didn’t want to counteract everything I was burning.

Um SERIOUSLY?!!? Yes, that is beyond insane. No wonder I hit a wall during my first half marathon training and started binge eating. I was starving for food! This is a great thing that has come out of running for me: I learned that if I want to run, enjoy the run, and do well then I need to actually take care of my body rather than torture it and myself. I’ve learned from both Annette and Ashley (LOVE my blog friends) about loving myself and eating well to fuel my workouts!

Annnnyway, tangent over. Just thought that might be helpful to some of you out there to know you’re not alone! Around mile 11 I passed an open bathroom on the lakefront, so I decided to stop in and was inspired by Janae to take a photo in the bathroom. You’re welcome. It was a much needed breather, but I had to get back out there since the sun was coming out and I needed to finish!

I had 3 cliff shot blocks starting at mile 12, and I finished them off around mile 13. What I love about those is they taste like gummy candy to me and I can slowly eat them over a mile! I think: “Just go .25 more miles and you get one!” haha.

Finally, I FINISHED!!!

And I immediately sprawled out in the grass. I. Was. Ex. Hausted. Yes, that needed to be split into two words.

See that smile? That’s a strained smile. I wanted to just take a nap right there. However, I had to pull myself up because people were walking in the park and I didn’t want to alarm anyone that I was dying… The run was definitely very tough, although I think it was a mental battle. Yes, my legs were tired but I was in no way injured or had any pain. I was just running on tired legs with no group there to keep up my spirits! I missed them!

Oh, and because I’m sure you love all my pictures, here’s a pretty one I snapped right after I finished!

Anyway, I stretched out in the grass and then walked my butt back to my apartment where I made a super quick shake with 1 T PB2 and 1 T Sunwarriror Vanilla Protein powder to get something in my system. Then I showered and put on this fancy outfit because I had places to be!

Yep. Compression pants. In public. I ate a quick breakfast #2 (#1 was 1 slice Udi’s bread with PB before my run – no banana because I had no groceries) and then headed out the door! After an exhuasting morning I was not prepared for what came next: I had to pick up my brother’s car from O’Hare, one of the airports here, and then drive south about 2 hours to meet my sister-in-law’s sister to pick up Molly. Simple, yes? NO.

It took TWO HOURS to get to car! The bus ride downtown and then the L out to the airport took way longer than I thought and then I got soooooo very lost in the airport trying to find the shuttle out to economy parking. Let’s just say that when I called my brother for help I was staring at a map near tears. I’m sure my exhaustion had nothing to do with the irrationality of that…

Luckily I found the car (and the key taped underneath… we won’t go there) and headed out to get MOLLY!!!!! I made great time and was excited to talk to Liz and John, who’d taken care of her all week! We called it “Camp” and to be quite honest I’m pretty sure she really misses them, she had attention all day long AND a backyard! Lucky gal.

I loaded Molly up and we headed home – arriving in Chicago a little after 7!

WHEW! It was a long day. But I did it. And then I slept. Oh, and ate a lot all day… the gas station where I stopped probably thought I was insane when I inhaled a bag of (non-soy sauce) jerkey and string cheese in about 2.5 seconds. So good.

 

Do you prefer running in a group or alone?

How do you fuel your workouts?