Map of Sunday's Marathon!

4 hours and 17.74 miles!

This is a map showing the distance I covered yesterday. I ran two hours out from Main street Chula Vista to the Coronado Rec Center, and two grueling hours back. It was intense!

I've been doing a combo run/walk where I run for 15 minutes and walk at a fast pace for 5 minutes. The first hour and a half I felt pretty good. When I was running I kept my pace up, and my lungs felt great. Swimming has really helped me learn how to control my breathing. It was a pretty warm day, but running by the ocean in San Diego is spectacular. When I got to the Coronado rec center, and was really tired my hips were starting to hurt, and then I realized I still had two hours left to go! 

On the way back my legs felt like jelly, my hip joints hurt, and the bottoms of feet started throbbing. The only thing I could do to keep going was to zone out, and not think of my body. So I wrote a play in head! I'll definitely share it later, once I iron out the details. 

But that crazy little story kept me going for about an hour. That last hour, I did a whole lot more walking, because my joints were just killing me. 

 My body is still recuperating from yesterday, but  my mind and spirits are wide awake and kicking. I can't believe that two weeks from now I'll be doing and additional 8.46 miles! 

Craziness. 

Sunday's Run...ok Walk

Sunday was one of the worst runs ever.

and yet i feel like a million bucks, or half a million since i ran half a marathon .

i discovered chafing, insoles which gave me blisters, a water pack that wouldn't sit on my hips, and I got a horrible sunburn!

I ended up taking off my water pack and hiding it in the bushes, and then a few miles later i took off my insoles and hid those in the bushes too!

Running without insoles was fine until the stiching on the inside of the shoe started giving me blisters in new spots. 

 

All in all, it was probably one of the most uncomfortable runs ever, but I did it! I got out there and gave it everything I had, and I am pooped.

 

My training did not go as planned. There are many distractions that kept me from staying on top of my training. Some of those distractions I should have over-come. But there were also some sacrifices that I was just not willing to make. Alfredo hurt his back and could barely walk for a few weeks. My number one chearleader, coach and best friend was out of commission and he needed me right when I needed to kick my training into high gear. But I couldn't even think about running when my partner, the person that had helped me get here,  needed my help. I was just not willing to make that sacfrifice. 

So I'll walk a good portion of the marathon. I know that covering 26.2 miles on my own two legs (running or walking) is a huge accomplishment all on its own. I'm very excited. 

And not at all ashamed of walking a large portion of the marathon. I understand the circumstances that kept me from training properly.

This is a huge lesson for me. I want to do this marathon again, and run it..