This is the part of training that’s kind of cool. Being my first marsthon, long runs are turning into distance PRs!

That definitely helps me with motivation, as I get competitive with myself. Not gonna lie, though. Today’s miles were a bit tough. I don’t know if it was the cold. The new fuel belt, though I got it adjusted and comfy by 0.5 miles. 

Maybe it was the roads and sidewalks, which literally were not even remotely cleared for about 90% of my route. 

This picture doesn’t even show the worst areas I went through. Definitely made it tough, trying to find a clear-ish route where I wouldn’t slip and fall or get hit by a car. The worst was by the water where I guess no one takes on clearing the sidewalks over there. I am actually a little surprised I wasn’t hit by a car over there. 

The turkeys crossing didn’t add agony to my run. Wild turkeys like me (you can ask my best friend, Lesley, about a story from my driver’s ed oh so many years ago!) and they were kind of cute. 

I lost my mittens at about 4.5 miles, which was a wicked bummer. I started out wearing them but it wasn’t too bad out weather wise and I tried to latch them on to my new belt. Fail. But ultimately that didn’t make my run tough. 

In truth, it was probably a combination of everything paired with this being my longest distance to date and the need to just mentally push through. I felt great getting out there and then around mile 9.5 it wasn’t necessarily negative talk, but almost more like some self doubt creeping in. Really when I started out today I was like, “Man this run is so great! Blog title ’15 miles and feeling fine!'” Definitely didn’t feel I could use that when I finally got back to home. 

I’m happy I was able to push through, but really I was feeling close to not being able to. I’ll be curious to see how my next few long runs go and if I seem to hit a similar mental road block. Tuesday I’m going to our team psychologist’s lecture “It’s All in Your Head” and the timing could not be better. I did add fueling and water to my run today (though admittedly I have no real sense of if that helped or not, just know it’s a necessity at this point) but now I think getting some tips and tricks to keep myself mentally in check for the longer miles is going to be really helpful. 

I’m still enjoying this process a lot. And part of a challenge is experiencing the highs and pushing through the lows, so I’m not going to get down because of this one run. 

To lighten things up a bit, I’ll once again invite you into my bizarre running brain. For over an hour I was singing “The Monster” by Eminem but I literally know none of the words so it turned into something like “I’m friends with a monster, it’s under your bed. I really like monsters, they’re all in your head. You try to save me, but I like them so bad. And you think I’m crazy, you think I’m crazy.” It went even more downhill from there.  Also, when I was on sea street I literally could not stop thinking “sea lions on sea street. Sea lions on sea street!” I don’t ask questions anymore, I just go with it.

And “Lookin’ goods!,” “Nice job!”, [waves], and [smiles] for that matter! 

Not a bad way to experience my longest run to date. Today I went out for 14 miles with some of my Race for Rehab team members. We started at the Wellesley Marathon Sports, who were awesome to lay out our route and even provide water along the way. 

We ran on part of the Marathon route and there were hundreds of people out for their training runs. I absolutely love the camaraderie among runners. When I run alone and pass a runner, there’s always a friendly exchange. Today, though, it was extra special because you know you’re out there with fellow Bostonians all training for the same goal. It just felt really awesome and I’m looking forward to more weekend runs like this before the big day!

We started together and obviously had to do some awkward selfie action. 

I ran the first half with my team captain, Suzanne, and we found out we pace each other really well. Everyone is following different training schedules, so I ran about a mile and a half beyond the mapped out turn around to hit my 14 mile goal. On my way back alone, it was amazing passing so many who will be there with me on April 21. I loved getting the encouragement from these strangers and being able to share some back for them. 

In true team captain style, here’s me “in action,” or not really. I need to start practicing posing for cameras while running. Why can I never get a cute running picture?! Haha

I spend entire evenings thinking about all of this greatness I would derive from a pre-work morning run. I get so excited; I check the weather, I get my running gear all laid out and I set my alarm all usually before even having dinner! All night before bed I think about how wonderful it will be to roll out of bed and charge in to the cold morning air. I’m literally so proud of myself and my plan and nothing is going to stop me!

Then my morning alarm goes off. I hit snooze once, because I deserve 5 more minutes. Also, it wasn’t mentioned above but a 5 minute snooze is built into my morning run wake up plan and was anticipated by the setting of alarm #2 for exactly 5 minutes after alarm #1. (At this point we could derail into a detailed description of my regular everyday morning alarm ritual, but I’ll spare you. Suffice it to say it’s a little ridiculous). 

Anyways…5 minutes later…uh oh, my bed is really cozy. Could 5 more minutes hurt? I mean it wasn’t part of the plan, but I can set an alarm right now. Not a big deal. 

5 minutes later…..ugh, that was a really fast 5 minutes. Time to figure out what time I would get in to work if I give myself 30 more minutes of snoozing and then went for my run. What? Totally doable? Perfect! I don’t have a morning meeting or anything, snooze away! 

30 minutes later…the guilt sets in. I totally defied my well constructed morning run plan and now I’m going to be getting in to work later than I wanted. Plus my bed is comfy. Ugh. I mean, at this point I might as well snooze for 30 more minutes. I can get my run in later today. 

To date my well designed morning run plans have been perpetually blocked by my evil anti-morning twin. It’s a shame that in the series of alarm adjustments I can’t find the same motivation I was exuding the night before. Feelings of greatness honestly don’t even cross my mind at that time of the day; instead I hear the alarm and immediately go into an in-defense-of-sleep mode, of sorts, negotiating with myself ways to allow my body to remain in a comfy bed cocoon. 

Morning runs truly are my unicorn. An amazing concept in theory, something that totally fascinates me and I strive to see, but something that, at least as far as I can tell, will remain a fantasy.  Sigh.