20.5 mile long run.

Well, here we are, my friend Holly and I after we finished our 20.5 miles.  We're still smiling, but we both were hurting - she is also having similar problems with one of her knees/IT band.  It was still a fun run, and the company was just the boost I needed to get through this run.  I didn't sleep very well last night, waking up at 3am with a little boy who had wet the bed, then not being able to get back to sleep right away.  I laid there tossing and turning for almost an hour then finally fell asleep just long enough to have a disturbing dream and be jarred awake by the alarm at 4:45am.  Once I was up, I had to get ready and do some sort of a warm up.  I had a blistered toe I needed to tape up, my Gatorade to prepare, and my waist pouch to fill with fuel, phone, etc.  We were out the door at 5:20, but we had a ways to drive to get to our starting point - the Pocatello Marathon route.  We got there by 6am, met up with the rest of the group, 2 ladies doing 10 miles, one more doing 12 miles, and one of Holly's running "mentors", a 60-something year old guy named Terry, who was the only other one besides me and Holly doing 20 today.

It was a beautiful morning, we were able to enjoy the sun as it came up over the mountains, turning the clouds pink and purple.  I had told myself before we started that no matter what the rest of the group did, I would run a comfortable pace for me.  I knew by 5-6 miles that I was going faster than I'm used to, but we were following Holly and Terry's MO - take a short walking break every 2 miles, and as sub-4 hour marathoners, I was more than willing to follow their lead.  Those little breaks were just enough to get a drink, have some fuel and rest my legs.  We followed this pattern until around 15 miles, when my knee was really starting to bother me and I was also starting to feel the effects of the heat of the day, with a headache starting and some lightheaded-ness to go with it.  I decided to take a couple of extra walking breaks on my own until I felt a little better, and caught up with my friends when Terry stopped for a bathroom break.  The last few miles were tough, my legs were on fire, but I just kept talking myself through the roughest patches and having someone to talk to helped A LOT!  Before we knew it were back to my car, where I had packed a cooler with chocolate milk for us to enjoy after our run.  We finished the 20.5 miles in just under 4 hours, which equated to an 11:42 min./mile pace.  Dang, if I can cut out even a couple of the walking breaks and keep that pace for the whole 26.2, I might be able to break 5 hours on my marathon after all!