22 miles!

Today was the big one, and I was a bit anxious. Turns out I had nothing to fear. It was a great morning, and I have such a joyful feeling of accomplishment. If you would have told me 4 years ago that I'd be doing this, I would have said you were crazy. But here I am, amazingly enough.

The team was "only" doing 20 miles, so I arrived early and did 2 miles before the team workout. It was pitch black when I started at about 6:20 am, with just a little sliver of moonlight over the mountains. Pretty!


The team assembled and we had a few announcements, and Meg read a letter from a man whose daughter died of cancer at age 10. It was very moving, and a fresh reminder of why we are doing this. I imagined one of my kids suffering that way, and it was a terrible thought. The research that has been done in the last 30 years has brought us a long way, but there is still a long way to go.

The team members walked/ran the Jordan River Parkway today. It's beautiful, as the path winds along by the river, but the scenery is pretty much the same and it does get boring after a while. I was mostly by myself today, as I didn't want to try and keep up with the runners, though later on I did pass some of them (more on that to come).

Here is one of my favorite parts of the trail:


The aspens are just barely starting to turn yellow:


Back to the racewalking details now. I started off very conservatively, keeping my HR between 130 and 135 for the first 10 miles or so. I tried not to push at all, and just relaxed and enjoyed the cool air. It was pretty chilly at the start; I was fine in my singlet and shorts but my hands were a little cold. However, after the first hour with the team, it was warmer and my hands were OK. I'm glad I didn't bring gloves, because then I didn't have to carry them (it did get pretty warm by the end - probably about 70 degrees, and it felt hot in the sun). I allowed my HR to get up between 135-140 from miles 10-13, because I was feeling pretty good. We had a turnaround point at mile 13, and I had about 2:20:xx on my watch. I decided that since I was still feeling really good that I could go faster. So, from miles 13-16 or so, I kept my HR about 140-145, and from miles 16-20 it was more like 145-150. My legs were starting to get a bit tired, but I really felt pretty awesome, considering. At the last aid station, about mile 20, I decided to push harder and kept my HR above 150 to the end. My right leg had a bit of soreness behind the knee, both hamstrings were very tired, and I had a slight bit of chafing under my right arm (I had Body Glide but it wasn't bad enough to stop for, really), but overall, there were no serious problems. My GI system gave me NO trouble whatsoever - not even one cramp! YEAH!!!!! That was a huge relief. I was able to push harder than I thought and it all worked out.

Here I am at the finish of our workout, with the carved wooden bear at 7800S and 1100W.


My total time for the 22 miles was 3:54:50, not including stops, for 10:40 per mile average pace. My average HR was 139. When I include the stops, my time was 4:02ish, but this is a bit misleading because in a race I would have probably had about half that time in stops - at the aid stations here I had to stop to fill the small cups several times, and it took several minutes by the time I added up all the stops. I did have to make 2 pit stops, but that didn't take long :), thankfully. If I have a good day, my finishing time could be under 4:45, or maybe even faster? But y'know what? I am going to be SO happy just to finish; a fast time is icing on the cake. I hope I have a good race and don't have GI trouble, because it will be a lot of fun if I'm feeling good.

Only 3 weeks and 1 day until the marathon!