A Big Acomplishment

Now I know you must be tired of hearing all about my running and training for the Outerbanks half marathon! I am down at our beach house all by myself this week to do some intense training (flat terrain makes for good running!) and it's about 10 days away so this is the last week of intense training. Next week I taper down with a 2 miler and a 5 miler and then the big 13.1 miler.

So anyway, I've mostly kept on schedule up until the last week or two. It's hard to do 6-7 miles on a weekday due to it getting darker earlier, not to mention a 3 day shopping weekend with my daughter. I took my running stuff but found other ways to spend my time!

Today was the day for my biggest run before the event. In training you never run as much as the event itself. I heard that adrenaline carries you the rest of the way. Today was my 10 miler! I was really dreading it but it was an awesome run. I ran for 20 minutes without stopping, then for the first 7 miles, I ran 9 or 10 minutes and walked for 30-45 seconds for a little break. It was one of those easy breathing, get a good pace, nothing hurt, no side stitches runs. I call it steady state as I was able to get enough air in to sustain me and when my heart rate got over 165, I slowed enough to get it down to 160.

For those of you who know Cherrygrove Beach, I started at our house on 20th Ave North and ran to Ocean Boulevard (parallels the beach) and turned left and headed north all the way to The Point. This si the northernmost of the beaches in South Carolina. Then I turned around and ran south passing 20th Ave all the way to the stoplight at Main Street in Ocean Drive. I then turned around and ran the twenty blocks back to 20th, then home.

The last 3 miles were a bit of a struggle as I walked more than I wanted. However, I finished the 10 miles in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 19 seconds. Maybe a little more water or some energy gels would have helped? I managed to find a few water hoses along the way after I ran out of water.

My immediate reward at the end was a bottle of water, 4 ibuprofen capsules and a banana! After a cool-down and a quick shower, I sat on the beach in gorgeous fall sunshine and enjoyed a Duck Rabbit Milk Stout with a friend from high school. Not a bad run; not a bad day!

Tomorrow's plan: a 2 miler and maybe a 10 mile bike ride, but first dinner out with Susan (Sink) Bryan and a "good" nights sleep!