Diary of Twenty Miles

YES! The loooong awaited finish line

Thanks to a lengthy bout of Achilles tendinitis, followed by a bad fall on my left knee, followed by a congested/irritated IT band- it's been well over two years since I logged a 20-miler. But on Saturday, by the grace of God, I did it. It wasn't easy. Long runs never are. But it went as well as a four-hour run in the heat could possibly ever go, and for that, I'm relived and grateful.

The run started off rough despite a generous amount of caffeine. I was a little worried at how slow/tired I felt in the first 2-3 miles, which me made me paranoid. (Why did I walk four miles the night before with my friend? Why didn't I rest? Now I'm going to be exhausted the whole run!) I tried to reign in the crazy, negative thoughts by reminding myself not to jump to conclusions (namely, that I had plenty of miles in which to catch a second wind). And sure enough, the miles between 4-10 felt pretty darn good (unsurprisingly, because these were the downhill/soft-gravel miles). ;-)

I will admit that miles 11-15 seemed to stretch on forever. The sun came up, the knees started to ache a bit, the scenery became awfully repetitive, and I'm convinced the Dept of Transportation work crew went out earlier in the morning and moved all the mile markers further apart, just to mess with me.

At one point during those difficult miles, I really started to worry about my dwindling water supply. I remembered running out the last time (after being unable to locate my fresh stash in the bushes), and having to bum some off the guys working at the Kukio guard shack. Because there was intermittent cloud cover, I was hopeful that I had enough. But at one point, when I accidentally squeezed a bottle too hard and squirted out a few precious drops onto the pavement, I nearly had a stroke. Water on a long hot run is the equivalent of breast milk to pumping moms- that shiz is LIQUID GOLD and you DO NOT spill a DROP if you know what's good for you. ;-)

Once I got to miles 16-20, I could finally see the light at the end of of the tunnel, and was motivated to finish. I was able to pick up the pace a wee bit, but I doubt the pace was a second faster than an 11:00/min mile. After running for nearly 3 1/2 hours, there were liberal walk breaks. But my mind and body felt surprisingly pretty strong, and honestly, if I'd had to do a few more miles, I could have.

I'm not sure why my last three long runs have felt so manageable. I thought the last two (16, 18 milers) were because I had company, but the 20 was completely solo and I still felt okay. I'm not sure if it's the weights, the foam roller, the vegetarian diet, the Bioastin or the combination of all four? But for being my age, size (I'm almost in the overweight category for my BMI) and somewhat out of long-distance running shape...I've been pleasantly surprised at how 'okay' I've felt after the long runs. Again, they're far from pleasant or easy. Mentally, I still have to dig pretty deep to keep moving once I've run a few hours and my friends and music are no longer available (friends finish their runs, phone batteries die).

A few final fun facts from the run:

• The entire run, with breaks for water refueling and whatnot took me just under 4 hours, which met my goal time.
• I drank 16 oz. of water pre-run, 114 oz. during the run, and 24 oz. after, which meant I drank about nineteen 8 oz. glasses of water before 10:30am. :-D
• I looked like I was wearing a running burqa. I had on the most gear I've ever worn on a run- a cap, short sleeved shirt, two sleeves, tri shorts and compression socks. Every limb was covered except my knees (and face). If you couple the burqa with the water bottles strapped around my waist...I'm sure many a commuter today were wondering where the modestly attired, suicide bomber was headed off to. ;-)
• And if the burka and bombs around my waist weren't enough to turn heads, I'm sure my thick, white zinc-covered face and sideways baseball cap completed the picture of insanity. Before turning my cap sideways to avoid the sun, I tried to convince myself that plenty of other people wear their baseball caps that way. (Unfortunately, their names are Beavis, Butthead and Vanilla Ice, and it was only back in the late 80s.) 
• Despite the run going well, I can't help but have doubts about wanting to do this race. It's an awfully long distance to run, I'm super lazy/unmotivated to step up my game even more (I'm way outside of my comfort zone as it is), and it'll cost a pretty penny with gas, hotel, meals, race entry, new gear, etc. But I'm going to force myself to march forward and face my fear/anxiety for as long as I can...as I know I'll regret quitting (even though I'd love to bail out and take the easier route).

The rest of my weekend was amazing- I made two trips to Waikoloa AND a trip to Hilo, thanks to a fun cousin-bonding weekend at the Hilton and a friend's 40th birthday at a historic, restored home that serves high tea.

Killing time at his cousin's favorite store (those are fishing lures) in Hilo

The amazing view from the Cliffs Palm House (Inn)...where we had high tea. Too gorgeous- it reminded me of our 20th anniversary earlier this year overlooking the Waipio Rim.

High tea with three Germans and a Nihonjin. ;-)