A Windy 20 Miler...Again

Hello!  Yesterday morning, I woke up at 6am to get ready for my 20 Miler.  I secretly wanted to run 21+ but unfortunately, that did not happen.  My ankle was taped and I was ready to go.  I drove to my brother's apartment and ran the first 5 miles by myself.  I ran from his house to the BC Reservoir (see picture stolen from here below). The loop is a mile 1.5 long.

I love running around the reservoir and I wanted to run it three times before I met up with Mike.  However, the winds were INSANE.  On one half of the loop, I would be running 8:30 pace and on the other half I was up to 10 minutes.  I also had to pee really bad.  And I was negative.  Was my calf/ankle in too much pain?  Should I stop? Is my left calf hurting now?  

Miles 1-4

(8:55, 9:11, 9:19, 9:20)

After I ran to Dunkin' and used the bathroom, I was at 4.5 miles and my brother was planning to meet me in 8 minutes.  Knowing the reservoir was 1.5 miles, I knew I didn't have time to run another loop, so I just ran up and down Beacon until I found Mike!  Once we met up, I started to feel better and more positive.

Miles 5-8

(9:19, 9:16, 9:03, 9:34)

But Mike wasn't in the mood to run and we were both kinda questioning why we were out there.  Why couldn't I just be a walker? Ya know, why can't I just go walk the river without needing to run?  Those people look so happy.  The one thing I will say is that the river was beautiful and the Memorial Drive side going towards the city was against the wind.  But we could see just looking at the water that the wind was going to be INSANE on the other side.

Miles 9-12

(9:12, 9:27, 9:15, 9:20)

We stopped at Mile 10 at Starbucks to refill my water bottle.  Mile 12, I stopped to get some rocks out of my shoe.  

Mile 13-16

(9:07, 9:28, 9:26, 10:24)

Mile 13 I felt fine.  Mile 14, I felt okay.  Mile 15 is when we got on the other side of the river and wham!  Holy WIND!  I seriously wanted to die by mile 16.   I read that there were winds of 30mph!  Also around Mile 16, we decided to get off the river and run along Back Bay area on Beacon Street.  Things didn't go much better there either.

Mile 17-20

(10:13, 10:27, 10:34, 10:18)

Stopped at Mile 17 at another Dunkin' to fill water.  At mile 18, I told Mike to leave me.  I wanted to push through alone with my iPod.  I finished 20 FRIGIN miles and again it was hard.  I'm going to blame the wind. I ran 14 miles last week easily when there was no wind so I know I can do it.  Next week I am going to run 18, then 12, then race.  I have no goals for this race other than to finish.  I just want to FINALLY be able to say I've run one!  Even if I am SLOW.

I tried to turn off the autopause on my watch but I was unsuccessful.  So I finished in 3:11 + add 8 minutes of paused time.  Yep, slow.  But hey, I ran 20 miles!  For a 400 meter runner, that's not too bad.  Last night we had Dave's father's 65th birthday and I am going to post those pictures and food I just cooked tomorrow.  Happy Sunday everyone!