Twenty Miles!!!!!!

After last weeks disastrous run, I was really hoping for a strong run.  I had a good solid week of workouts and everything felt pretty good.  The plan was to meet at Nancy's at 6am.  She only wanted to do 10 because she is running a 5K later on today and she is in taper mode for her marathon.  I, however, am not.  I have this planned 20 and then another 20 planned for October 16th.  With this plan, it meant that I would have to run 10 miles by myself which is a good challenge.  The first 10 miles on the run, we ran fast.  Nancy is trying to break 4 hours in her marathon on October 17 so I was along for the fast ride.  I felt fine but knew I wouldn't be able to hold that pace after Nance left.  Here's the stats:

 20 Miles 3:13:12 9:39 pace

Mile 1: 8:56

Mile 2: 9:01

Mile 3: 8:59

Mile 4: 9:10

Mile 5: 9:12

Mile 6: 9:21

Stopped by water and have some Luna Moons

Mile 7: 9:03

Mile 8: 9:09

Mile 9: 9:21

Mile 10: 9:37

Stopped to put in my earphones and eat the rest of the Luna Moons

Mile 11: 9:21

Mile 12: 9:40

Mile 13: 9:43

Half Marathon- 2:01

Mile 14: 10:11

Stopped to buy gatorade

Mile 15: 10:38

Hilly road, feeling slow but trucking on

Mile 16: 9:49

Mile 17: 10:33

Mile 18: 10:16

Passing the street to turn back to Nancy's, realize I am going to be a mile short so add on a mile...

Mile 19: 10:49

... a really hard mile. 

Mile 20: 10:27

Reach Nancy's street at 20.  Decide to walk back to my car instead of run the extra half mile. Finished feeling happy! Another 20 under my belt!

Obviously after Mile 14 I started to fade a lot.  I was holding on and repeating the mantra: "I will not let running torture me." Honestly, I really felt so good cardio-vascularly, but my legs weren't moving too fast.  But I'm happy.  Another 20 Miler down!  One more to go before NY 11/7/10.  Bring it on NY!  I'm excited now!!!

And for all you marathon newbies who are in taper mode- read this post I wrote before my first marathon.  You can do it!

One more note... this was my pre-run fuel last night. 

Nothing beats Vegetarian pizza from our local pizza shop.  Mmmmm... Pizza is the best fuel, right Jen?