14 miles

I have reached a new milestone.  The farthest I have run in the past 4.5 years until today had been 13.1 miles during my two Spring half marathons.  The last time I ran more than that was when I trained for the Marine Corps Marathon in 2006.  It’s exciting to hit this milestone and know that my marathon training is well underway.

Those 14 miles certainly did not come easy today.  It was 80 degrees with 80% humidity at 6am and by the end of my run is was 84 degrees with a heat index of 92.  The weather made for a very tough run, but I somehow managed to get through it.  I usually don’t take walking breaks during my runs, but today I allowed myself a few very short ones because of how tough the weather was making it for me to breathe.

I stopped home at mile 7 because I had already finished the 20oz of water I brought along and needed to refill if I was going to make it through another 7 miles.  I ended up finishing the other 20oz by the time I reached 13 miles.  Good thing I was almost home! Despite drinking 40oz during my run and probably another 20oz when I got home, I still lost 3lbs during my run.  That means I’ll spend the rest of the day rehydrating!

After my refill, I left my nice cool air-conditioned house and stepped back into the heat.  I very seriously considered turning right back around and going back into the house, but I forced myself to get running again.  It’s a good thing I did because guess what I found.  A $20 bill! It was just laying on the sidewalk about a mile and half from my house, not near any homes.  It was next to the ramp onto the highway so I figured finder’s keepers! It’s nice to get paid to run .

Then as I continued my run, I made a friend at a nearby horse farm.

Isn’t she pretty?

The last 4 miles were very difficult, but I kept reminding myself that I could do it.  I run 4 miles all the time, usually pushing a stroller so I knew I could do it.  Once my watch beeped at 14 miles, I felt so accomplished.  I really did it.  This also brought me to another milestone – I’ve run over 400 miles now in 2011.  That would be 400 since I got my Garmin in March, a bit more than that if I had been keep track of my distances before then.  I also ran a total of 26 miles in the past week – like a marathon spread out over 4 days of running! My time today was 2:25, an average pace of 10:25 – not bad for a long run on a super hot day!

I’d also like to strongly encourage my neighbors and all nearby businesses to water their lawns early on Saturday and Sunday mornings because I could really use a run through a sprinkler on days like today .

In other exciting news, we got a bike seat for Zain so I can do some biking with my running buddy.  I’m really looking forward to some family bike rides when it cools off a little!

Trying on his new helmet!

My final post about my vacation – Running in Rome – will be up this week!

Happy running and stay cool!

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