fueled by lips and @ssholes

Today, I got up and ready barely in time for run club, but then family came over, and then I had to let my dog out again, find my fuel belt, etc, etc, etc...

So I set out an hour late. No biggie, as I soon realized that there was no way I was going to keep up with anyone in the club. My legs were quite stiff.
I decided to alternate 1/2 mile walking with 1/2 mile jogging, as that seemed to work well yesterday. The deal with the walking, though, was that it had to be under 15 min/mile. I kept checking my Garmin for that, and did pretty well, I think. I'm trying to keep it as efficient as possible, and to remember what it feels like, and I think I'm getting more of a handle on that pace/effort. Jogging, on the other hand, was not much faster than walking! My legs were heavy, plus to allow my foot to heal, I had the laces really loose on my right shoe, and then the left too, so that they'd match. They were pretty much slippers. Running through muck nearly lost them. lol. Seemed that every time I checked the garmin, my pace was 10:36/mile. Oh, well, not bad. As long as my foot felt fine, I didn't care.

After about an hour of this, I met one of my run club buddies, and I jogged with her a couple of miles, I guess, then left her to do some more before going to the coffee shop. It's amazing how quickly the miles seem to go with the intervals, in a way, but I was feeling more and more tired and then realized that, duh, it was just over two hours into my run and I hadn't eaten anything. To the coffee shop! but

We've had a Tamil Tigers protest on the Hill these past few days. I could hear the drums a few blocks away. I went on Sparks, and found a bunch of the protesters spilling down from Wellington, and two hot dog vendors. Yeah, they set up the grills. So I got a bratwurst. I've been toying with the idea of eating a hotdog or whatever on the run, but didn't want to go down to Bank and Laurier, but didn't know any other in biz when it's this cold. But, hey, protesters have to eat! I wonder if the hotdog guys raked it in. Anyway, my bratwurst tasted really good. I ate most of it on the way to the coffee shop and then also got some hot chocolate and a cookie. Ate everything. I was very hungry, even though I'd gone only 11 or 12 miles. (still faster than race pace, hahaha)

Then I set out again, the same deal, and at first it was ok because my legs were sore, but no more sore than they had been at the beginning of the run. That's the good thing about starting tired, sometimes: it doesn't get any worse. After about an hour, though, the bratwurst started to make me feel kind of off. I was at Dows Lake then, and I decided that, heck, I'd walk for a whole mile.

Then I wondered if I was actually dehydrated, because I hadn't been drinking a lot of water, maybe 500mL by that point. So, as I strolled through the Arboreteum, I took a swig. And another. and another. That water, chilled by the air, was perfect. The sun was shining, the wind was off me, the grass was relatively green, the sky blue, etc, etc, and I was drinking the best water in the world. It was one of those rare moments of total satisfaction. I decided to take the gel, too, the last Orange Creamsicle, and it was good, but not as good as the water. I enjoyed more water and wondered if the ultra was going to be the same sort of blissful zone. It's definitely a zone of some sort.

I jogged a mile on the little trails in the Fletcher Garden, then jogged/walked home. Total 20.5ish miles in 4:30ish, I think. Had some ginger ale and sat down for I guess 20 min, then figured that I might as well exercise the dog before company came.

We walked a bit, but I was getting tired of that after about a 1/2 mile, so we ended up jogging and not walking again. My legs felt fresher than they had before. That blew me away. I was moving a notch faster, too, around the 10 min/mile mark.

I was going to do just a few miles, but then figured that, hey, I might as well do a marathon. And I did.

I've run five official marathons and the only one that went well was the last. The first was a big disappointment. I expected to feel this huge sense of accomplishment at the end, but I didn't. The others weren't as bad because my expectations were lower. So it was really surprising to feel so proud of myself at the marathon mark of my run today. I wasn't expecting that. I wanted to grab someone and tell them that I did a marathon. Can't say ran, because at least 11 miles of that was walking, and my time was 5:45 for 26.46 miles...not really stellar, lol. But it was an amazing feeling. I didn't know I was going to run a marathon today. My goal was to do 4.5 hrs. And I could have gone on. It was really tempting, and had we not the Easter dinner at my folks', who knows how long I would have gone.

So I feel more confident about the ultra. I ran over 40 miles this weekend. I have one more weekend to do some serious runs, and then I'll back off a bit. Not sure if I'll aim for 45 or a longer long run, or both, but I think I'll be ok. Just have to get used to switching gears between running and walking more. But it's good to know that I can get a bit of a break by running straight. The fueling stations are 5 miles apart, as it turns out, which is about what the dog and I ran. So, in the later stages of the run, when my legs are trashed anyway, I might as well run.

My foot seems to be ok. I'll probably just walk for the next two days, then maybe do 2-3 hrs with hills on Wednesday instead of speedwork. no more speedwork for me until after this race, unless I do a tempo run.