I Did It!

Not only did I not die, I never even thought I was going to die.

Not once.

I got up at 4:12AM. I put some heat on my feet, had a small cup of coffee, 12 ounces of water, a banana and a two scoop drink of that fancy schmancy 'perfect combination of carbs to protein' drink (that tastes like medicine - far worse than Metamusil), a Powerbar and put together my FuelBelt, stretched and off I went.

I left the house at 4:50AM.

My route took me past the golf clubhouse at 5:04 and it said it was 75 degrees. It was not bad out. I felt like I could breathe just fine.

Bobby had suggested that I do a powerwalk/run combo that sounded really good to me. PW 10 minutes then run 2 minutes, PW 10, R 4, PW 10, R 6, PW 10, R 8, PW 10, R 10 and start all over. He suggested 12 minute mile PW and 9 minute mile R. I mapped it out in my head and liked that it would give my mind something to think about. I am a bit anal about stuff, so that when I can use my time to put all of the pieces together, I am a happy camper.

Here is what I didn't take into account. It is dark outside. I can not see my pace on my watch, or the time until the sun comes up. I can catch a glimpse under street lights, but that is about it. There was no way for me to easily moderate all that.

So, I just ran at what felt like a pace I could do for the long haul.

My FuelBelt has 4 8 ounce bottles. I learned early on, if I filled them all the way - they leaked, so you can really just put 5 - 6 ounces in each one. I started with 2 with water and 2 with Gatorade.

My dad asked me if I wanted him to follow me in the golf cart. I said no, but if he could be out when I was at about 7 miles, he could refill my water bottles, so I stayed hydrated. I told him I would map it out so I was at the end of his driveway around 6:00AM.

I drank all of the water and one of the gatorades by the time I got to him at 6:00. I knew I was doing pretty good, time wise, as I was at 7 miles. There was not a dry spot on any of my running gear by the time I got to him. I have not run with wet shorts ever before in my life, totally and utterly wet.

He was sitting at the end of his driveway, in his golf cart. I handed him the three bottles and forgot to tell him to not fill them all of the way up. I ran around his loop and he was back out by the time I got back to him. He asked me if I wanted him to follow me in the golf cart. I said "Sure, If you want to." So off we went. We had 7 miles to finish.

It didn't take long for the water from the three bottles he filled for me to splash out onto my shorts. I got a bit more wet, but by the time they got down to 5 ounces, they stopped sloshing onto me.

At some point, I wanted some GU. It was still dark out and I got the GU out of my pack and I could not find the place to open it. I gave it to my dad and asked him to get it open for me. He must have had a bit of trouble as well, as he stopped the cart under a street light and then caught up with me. Chocolate GU - Love it! I also liked that I could give him my garbage.

At about the 11 mile mark, we were close to my house, where we refueled with more Gatorade and headed back to his house. I left him off with just 1.1 miles left to go and headed back to my house.

I finished up the 14 miles before I was back, but I was not being a hero and stopped running as soon as my watch hit 14.00. It was light out by then, so I could see just fine.

I walked rest of the way home.

The ice bath was awesome! I have no clue why people are afraid of them. They feel so good.

Next time, 40 pounds of ice.

I then had another glass of that fancy schmancy stuff that tastes like medicine and sat down to share my joy and let you all know how very proud I am of me. I am now heading to a nice warm shower.

14.0 miles

2 hours 29 minutes and 7 seconds

10'39"/mile

Time to get a warm shower and start