Lizzie – Double Digits Baby!!!

“The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.” - Steve Young

I have accomplished two major milestones since my last update.
-- I ran 9 miles on Saturday, September 8th
-- I ran 11 miles on Saturday, September 15th

9 miles…
This was my best run ever!!! The first 6 miles I totally kicked ass. (Ran 5/1 intervals. Ran for 5 mins, walked for 1 min.) Mile 7 was good, a little slower, but still strong. Mile 8 was getting tougher, and mile 9 was a bit of a struggle, but I was still running. Slow, but still running. My calves were screaming at me. I did have to walk the hill up into Leucadia. Running it just was NOT gonna happen. Which means, I need to do a lot of hill work between now and Oct 21st. :-) It was a fun run. We took the train from Solana Beach up to Oceanside, then ran back. Those of us training for the half got to take a shuttle back from Leucadia to Solana Beach. The full marathon team ran all the way back to Solana Beach. I may be nuts, but I'm not completely insane. I didn't sign up for the full. :-)

I did however forget to apply sun block. Whoops!!! I have some of the funkiest tan lines. Looks like I’m wearing white shorts all the time now. (Think about it.)

11 miles…Double digits!!!
I did everything possible to recover quickly from the 9 mile run so that I would be strong for the 11 mile run. Two visits to the chiropractor, one visit to the massage therapist. Lots of cross training, eating right, drinking lots of water and rest. Saturday morning I woke up with very few aches and pains. Woohoo!!! All my effort paid off.

The run started at Hospitality Point in Mission Bay. Located about a half mile down from where Scott and I got married (Marina Village).
After stretching and warming up, it was time to run. Feeling good, feeling strong – ready to go!!!
Then I start running. Holy crap, what the hell??!!
Everything hurts from the hips down. My legs are in complete protest. Not sure what’s going on with my body, just that my legs feel as if I had already completed the 11 miles, not just started.
Michelle is running with me, offering words of encouragement. Just need to warm up, it’ll work out. About 1.5 miles into the run I start getting sharp/burning pain in my calf. So, we stop to do some gentle stretching and deep breathing. I need to calm down and relax. I’ve completely stressed my self out about how crappy I’m feeling and fearful of what the next 10 miles will be like.

I get the sharp pains under control and we start to run again. I’m definitely going at a slower pace than the previous weekend. My cardiovascular is fine. Heart and lungs, no problem. But the legs are still not happy. For the most part, I am able to keep the 5/1 interval going.

Michelle and I part ways at my half way point. She has a few more miles to go before she’s due to turn around.
This means that I now have to continue running solo. No one next to me saying, “Good job Lizzie”, “Keep it up”, “Almost there”, “You’re doing such a good job”, etc. Having Michelle next to me uttering these words of encouragement helped get me through my run.

I mentally prepare myself, and head back down the boardwalk. I stick to the 5/1 intervals. If I walk for too long, it’s too hard to start running again – so I’m motivated to keep moving.

I did pretty good solo, considering, for the next 30 – 45 mins. I get past the boardwalk and on to the edge of the park. At which point, I fall apart. I just can’t seem to get my legs to cooperate. I’m tired, frustrated and sick of being in pain. I make it to the aid station, get some salt and wash it down with the water.
Now at this point you may be thinking that I’ve hit “the wall” or something like that. However, I had been drinking plenty of water and Gatorade, along with eating Cliff Shot blocks.

I start to walk. I just can’t get my legs to run. Mentally and physically – I’m done. So, I walk for about 5 mins trying to talk myself and my legs back into running. Me and my legs weren’t listening to me. (I just hate it when I argue with myself and I lose.) So, what did I do next….I called my mommy! “Mom – I need your help.” My mom talked me through it. We worked on my breathing and focusing my energy and getting calm and relaxed again. We did this for about 10 mins. Afterwards I felt tons better, more centered and ready to go again. My mom rocks!!!

I was able to start up the 5/1 intervals again. I was even able to run up the bridge. Keep in mind, the aches and pains that I started the run with never went away. They never got much worse, but they definitely didn’t get any better.

The last mile of my 11 mile journey seemed to go on forever. I dropped down to 2/2 intervals so I could at least feel like I hadn’t completely given up on running.

3 hours and 10 mins later, I’m back where I started. Not the fastest or strongest run of my life, but definitely the longest.

Again. a HUGE Thank You to Michelle for running with me and helping me get to the half way point.
Plus, this time a special Thank You to my mom for helping me make it the rest of the way.
These two wonderful ladies helped me reach my goal and accomplish something I’ve never done in my life before.

Time to “back down”…
This coming Saturday will be our “back down” run. Meaning we won’t be increasing our miles, instead we’ll be going back down to a lower mileage. I’ll only be running 6 miles. HA! – “only”.

The week after that will be our last long run. I’ll be doing 12 miles and Michelle will be doing 20.

We’re almost there!!! The race is October 21st. Approximately one month away. Yikes!!!

Update on fundraising…
As for my fundraising goal, I am still 85% of the way there. So close and yet so far.

My mom made some delicious cookies for me to have a bake sale with at work. Of course, they sold out. Nothing’s better than mom’s home cooking. (Chocolate Chunk Walnut and Cranberry Oatmeal Walnut, in case you were wondering.)

Candy sales have slowed a bit, but treats are still available. If you’re in the San Diego Active office, stop by my office to pick up a treat for the low, low price of $1.

REMINDER: The fundraising deadline is September 28th. That’s just a few days away. Yikes!!!
For those of you that have been holding out, really, no kidding now is the time!!!
I need to raise a minimum $3250. If I haven’t met the minimum by this date I will need to pay the difference. Ouch!
http://www.active.com/donate/tntsdh/Lizzie

For those of you that have already donated, thank you so much!!!