My marathon is almost exactly a month away, and unfortunately, training had gone by the wayside between our trip to Ghana and Blake's accident. Mid November I had gone on a 16 mile run, but since then I hadn't run any longer than 8 miles.
I knew I needed to get a long run in sometime during this break if I was going to make my goal of a 20 mile training run before the marathon. Yesterday it rained, and I wasn't able to run as planned, so I decided I needed to run today.
My last few runs had been so poor that I didn't want to over commit myself if I still needed more time to work up to a greater distance. So, I was going to run somewhere between 5-9 miles, and then run back, making it between a 10-18 mile run.
Today, fortunately, I felt great! When I was at mile 7 or 8 I decided I was feeling good enough to go for the whole 18 mile run (which was my original goal for this week if I hadn't slacked at all).
Mile 10 I noticed a bunch of gray, ominous clouds on the horizon.
Mile 11 the wind kicked up, and it was kind of creepy how the park near our home was deserted, the sun was gone, and now I have a cold wind to contend with.
Mile 12 the rain started, and then got harder till it was pouring! Adding to the "joy" of running in a full blown storm was that it happened to be a section of road which didn't have trees or anything to cut the heavy rain pouring down on me. At this point (as I am cold and wet in addition to being tired) my plan is to make it to the first place where the trail goes under the road, and in the protection of the overhang call Blake and ask him to pick me up, because it just isn't worth it (Blake fully expected this call too as he heard the storm).
Mile 13.5 I made it to the first overhang (see, no cover) and looked at my distance. I still was feeling physically fairly good (if wet and cold), and I knew that I WANTED to make the distance. I had committed to the marathon, and if that was going to happen, I had to get through these runs! I also thought about how there was a very real possibility of rain even on the actual day, so I shouldn't let it stop me. So... not looking forward to going back in the rain...I started running again, no call to Blake.
It took a great deal of commitment to make this happen:
Okay, so it isn't 18 miles. I was .3 off. It bugs me, to be sure, and on a normal day, I go past my destination to make the planned distance... but I genuinely didn't have it in me to go any farther. Even though the storm had lessened a lot by the end, I was still cold, and wet, and tired of forcing myself to move. But today I proved something to myself. I know that when I put my mind to do something, I can follow through!
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