18 miles

It was rough. I struggled. I'm not feeling especially proud of this run. My arms felt exhausted, legs felt like jello, my back hurt, I ended up with blisters on my hands but I did it. That's the important part, right?

Eric had to rescue me at mile 13. I was starting to lose it (pathetic, I know) and ready to give up but he took Ethan and the jogger and encouraged me to finish what I had set out to do. Thank you honey!

But I did it. And I can say that today I ran 18 miles. Yay.....

I was all jazzed about this route that I chose because it was an actual loop (I've been doing mostly out-and-backs), it was totally doable with Ethan in the jogger, and I have been carb loading since Wednesday. More like Tuesday. Oh gosh, who am I kidding, I have been carb loading since signing up for this marathon. Mmmm....I'm suddenly hungry for a bagel.....

So anyway, this route seemed perfect. The first nine miles were mostly flat and then I'd have a slight downhill, then I would head up a serious hill (about a mile of the most nasty, beast of a hill) and finish off with a mostly flat five miles. Sounds great, right?

I don't know what I did to screw up preparing for this run. Maybe I just started out too fast and burned out quickly. Running with the jogger might have something to do with it, the warm weather might have played a part, maybe I wasn't hydrated enough. Luckily at mile 13 I was close enough to home that I could just drop in, freak out a little and have Eric get me back on track. That last five miles was much easier and I did reach lucky number 18.