Saturday 9/24: It started out pretty good, I was feeling confident and my legs felt great… I had the confidence I needed that would help me finish 18 miles…
And then, I had a run in with a dog. If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you know that I cannot stand dogs… especially when running! I am scared stiff of them!
I was about 3 miles in when this dog came shooting across a yard. I thought it would stop when it got to the road, but it didn’t… it came across two lanes, barking, growling, and scaring me half to death… I was screaming at it to go home, kicking at it, trying to get it to go away. I’m not going to lie to you, this dog wasn’t very big, but it was the scariest thing to me… everyone has their own fears right?
Finally someone came out to check on me… I guess I was screaming bloody murder, and he got the dog to go back home… he acted like I was an idiot… what a jerk! I continued on my way, but you know when the adrenaline wears off and you are out of harms way… yeah, I started crying so I stopped (a good distance from that evil dog) in someone’s driveway and called my mom. Mom’s make everything better :) After telling her about my ordeal, she asked if I needed anything, and I realized that I had been so surprised by the dog that I had lost my gum… she brought me another piece along with a hug… I love my mom :)
I found it hard to get back into my groove after that… it took me about a mile or so and then I started feeling good about my run again… I took a GU Roctane around mile 5. Once I got to the school/trail there were a gazillion people everywhere… there was a cross country meet going on, so I had to wind my way through everyone saying “on your left” “on your right” the whole time lol… I love running on the trail… there’s all sorts of people out and about… you’re never really alone :)
The halfway point (9 miles) ended up being where my husband works… pretty nifty how that works out ;) So I stopped and chatted for a few minutes while he filled up my water bottle for me and then I headed back.
Around mile 12 I really started having issues… the hills felt worse going back than they had when I first started out lol…(see garmin chart) I ended up walking up most of the hills on the way home… it was slow going…
I also had to stop and ask an older gentleman if he would fill up my water bottle for me because for some reason I was so thirsty the last 4 miles! I was so ready to be done and it seemed like there were hills on top of hills lol… It was tough mentally and my legs were so sore… but I finally made it home!!
18.01 miles in 3:31:31
The farthest I’ve ever run! I was thrilled that I finished and a little bit nervous when I thought that the marathon was 8.2 more miles than I had just run… how on earth will I finish a marathon?! Good thing the Columbus Marathon is mostly flat ;)
Tomorrow I have 20 miles and I’m thinking of doing it on flat ground.. we’ll see lol ;)
ONLY 15 DAYS TIL I RUN MY FIRST MARATHON!!! AHH!!
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