18 Miles

Last week, I completed my first 18 mile run. Let’s start with the positive: I didn’t die. That’s about all the positive things I can say.
The dread started earlier in the week when I realized I really couldn’t run 18 miles in my neighborhood. It would be rather tedious, and as my other post mentioned, the neighbors are started to comment (Side note: during my shorter run yesterday, the aforementioned neighbor yelled, “Keep it up!” out the window) . I tossed around the idea of running at UNH, but quickly thought better of it because I wouldn’t have access to fluids and a bathroom as easily as I do when I’m near home. And I wondered if the college kids would care about my comatosed body on the sidewalk, if God forbid, anything happened to me.
So I could run up and down excessively in the ’hood, or I could do it at the gym. I chose the latter.
This had its pros and cons as well. Pros-access to fluids and bathroom as much as I wanted. Lots of people to call 911 as needed. Cons-Staring at the same wall space for almost 4 hours, feeling like a hamster on my hamster wheel.
I decided to play mental mind games to get me through. I mentally broke the run down into three, 6 mile increments. I was thinking the most ridiculous things, such as “Only 3 more hours to go!” or “Wow, 15 miles left, I can do this!” After the 1st 6 miles, I was doing rather well. And at 12 miles, I was still happy and smiling. I was so happy that I decided I would break to go to the bathroom, then get right back on and finish out the last 6 miles strong. WRONG. When you have been moving nonstop for 2+ hours, then decide to stop for a minute, its not so easy to get back in the groove. My legs didn’t want to restart, my arms wanted to swing all willy-nilly, and honestly, I just wanted to sit down. I decided I needed a change of scenery, so I decided I would do the last 5 miles (as I somehow got one more done) on the indoor track. Of course, my Garmin foot pod really needs to be recalibrated, so I couldn’t count on it for mileage. I needed to count 18.5 laps in my head, 5 times. Yeah, that was fun.
Then I started to get rather light headed. I was trying my best to drink and get in enough carbs to sustain my energy. I clearly did not succeed. These last 5 miles took what felt like FOREVER. The last few laps, I regained my mental and physical composure, and ran them fast and strong-and I even ran a victory lap, while “raising the roof.” Who cares, no one was around. And hell, I had already been there for half a day, people think I’m weird anyway.
Tomorrow is my 2nd to last long run before the marathon. 18 tomorrow, then in 2 weeks, 20 miles. Tomorrow I may convince myself I need to run just 2 miles-and do that 9 times. Hey whatever works.