WHOA 23 MILES!!!

The last couple of weeks of school are crazy busy so I haven't had a lot of time to type out my experience on our 23 mile run.  It is now the last Saturday before I'm officially a free woman for the summer, however, and I'm free of commitments for the rest of the 3 day weekend (except for our run tomorrow morning) so I better sit down and blog this out!

My experience on the 23 mile run was quite amazing.  It's obviously the furthest I've ever run before and my body and mind experienced things I've never felt before.  I've taken to mentally breaking up my runs and I didn't even really realize that I was doing it until Momma Sue pointed it out on our make-up run a couple of weeks ago.  She said "Isn't it amazing that we just ran out to Bonner and all the way back to your house?" Mentally, I had broken that run into a run out to Bonner and back and then a run in town to my house! 

So my first run on the 23 miler was awesome! We went up the Rattlesnake area and around some of the trails up there.  It was cool and beautiful and a nice run! 

My second run was a little tougher! We ran on the Kim Williams trail for awhile and then veered onto the Bitterroot trail and then up to 39th street... this is where I started to struggle.  My mind was having issues earlier than this but my savior Carol starting telling me about a trip of her's and my mind was distracted until my stomach started to cramp up on 39th street.  It was TERRIBLE! My other savior Donna fed me a peanut butter sandwich and I felt better but it was starting to get hot and we'd been at this for a good 4+ hours! 

It's quite miraculous what your body can do.  The 18 mile mark was where I really figured this out! I hit a wall at mile 18 and fought with that wall... mentally, physically, my body went through waves of nausea that I thought would take me out...  you name it, I struggled through it. By mile 20, I was ready to give up.  And then, out of the corner of my mind, came a little voice that said "But there's only 3 more miles!" and then it got louder "ONLY 3 MORE MILES!" and it got louder with every mile "TWO MORE MILES!!!!" and relief when that last mile came into my mind " ONE LAST MILE!!!!! YOU'VE GOT IT!" 

I didn't run across the bridge as I had planned because I was still fighting those waves of nausea but I didn't give up and I finished my 23 miles!!!! 

And the best part is... we only have 3 more miles until I've run a full marathon!!!!