18 and Counting...

I finally finished the 18 miler on Sunday. I won't say it is the best run I've ever had. In fact, it was probably near the worst.

I started out on the run at about 11:00 AM. Yea, not a good time to start a long run. While the weather man said it was going to be a "pleasant" weekend, I wasn't thinking it was so pleasant. It was 79 degrees which I thought would be alright. But it was sooo hot. I think it was the way the sun was hitting me, in all honesty. I wore a black hat because I couldn't find my sunglasses and that was just trapping heat on my head. I was absolutely miserable through a good majority of my run.

Once I hit the 9 mile mark, I only had one bottle of water left and a bottle of gatorade. I brought the Gatorade to try to help with the lack of electrolyte problem I experienced on other long runs. Well, it turns out that Gatorade makes me more thirsty. I hate that sugary taste it leaves in your mouth so I kept having to follow it with water. Sooo...I think next time I'm going to have to try to mix it with water to make it less potent. Anyways, I very quickly went through my liquids and was starting to panick about how I was going to make it the 9 miles back.

I texted Andy to see when he was going to be back home (he was an hour away). He said he wasn't coming home anytime soon. At that moment, I really was frustrated. I tried to keep running but my mind just wasn't in it. I ended up walking a good distance, running some, walking some. Finally I reached the high school near Andy's house. They had just installed outdoor water fountains this summer and every time I stopped they had no water in them. I hoped that they would have water running through them this time since school is starting tomm. And thank goodness--they had water! Although one of the fountains seemed to have a taste of paint thinner or some kind of chemical--I assumed because they were new. Yuck. Anyways, I filled up my water bottles and went on my way.

The last few miles turned out to be okay--alot of running and then walking. I came back to the house with no chills this time--the Gatorade must have helped that problem. Also had sunburn on the back of my knees, arms, face, and neck. How fun....

I'm hoping the 20 miler this weekend is better than this one. I definetly will either be leaving earlier in the day or later to avoid the sun beating down on me.