When I woke at 3:45a.m. I didn't hear rain so that was nice. I got dressed in my running clothes and ate 1/3rd of a banana. I checked weather.com and to my surprise it was only a 10% chance of rain until 6a.m. which said 30% chance. So I set out for my journey soon after. While running in the first mile I did see some lightening, but it was up in clouds and very distant so I continued running. I had a pain in the top of my right foot that hurt pretty bad, but by mile 4 that pain finally melted away. I ran 6 miles before needing a bathroom so I was pleased to see some porta potties near some new home construction sites. I was glad someone had just cleaned them and put fresh TP in them. After that I ran another 1.75 miles when my friend Rhoni Jo texted me to tell me she was at my house. Soon after I heard thunder and then it began to pour rain. I ran faster. Another text came in from Rhoni Jo and she asked me if she could pick me up. I ran even faster and got home soaking wet. I was worried I'd be hit by lightening because it was coming down, but I was near very big homes and trees so I was sure I'd be okay.
I arrived home and my Garmin GPS watch said I had run 9.20 miles so I still had quite far to go. I changed into a completely new running outfit so I was dry and re-applied a bunch of Body Glide. I even changed my shoes.
After changing Rhoni Jo and I looked at the weather online and decided that running the same course I had planned wouldn't be good because that storm I had just been caught in was still pouring rain out and there was another storm right behind it. However to the north in Coralville, and North Liberty which was just a couple miles north there wasn't rain at all, so I drove my car near the mall, parked and we ran on trails and in neighborhoods there. After about 2 miles I was so ready to be done. I didn't say anything, but I was just so tired. Thank goodness Rhoni Jo is such a supportive friend running with me because she is the one that kept me going to help me reach my goal. Another three miles passed and I mentioned something about being tired and slow and then she said, "We are faster than those sitting at home." We ran by a garage sale, we ran up and down hills, and then we ran by what seemed to be a 5K course being set up. Then we saw these ladies setting up tables and water cups. I think I asked what race it was or something because next thing we know is we were asked to help pass out water to the racers. We said we would run another few minutes and come back to help. We did just that and helped pass out water to racers for about 10 or so minutes but I could feel myself stiffening up so I was hoping to be running again soon. Very soon we were off to run our last 5 miles.
By this time it was getting super humid out. I think it was about 8:30a.m. and I was at mile 18 when my body was just saying NO. I even blurted out quite suddenly once, "We need to walk!" My right calf seemed like it was going to explode, but as soon as we walked it felt much better. We made it to the car when my Garmin said 19.52 and then we did a cool down walk to get to my 20 miles.
After all this we came back to my house to stretch and then Rhoni Jo went home.
I stretched more, showered and ate a little something, but felt quite nauseous over all. I iced my top of my foot, my right calf and my low back and then other areas that had kind of bothered me. The nausea never went away until several hours later. I think I felt this way because of the heat and what I had put my body through. The total time was 4 hours and 20 minutes which comes out to be a 12.99 running pace. Every training book I have read says to run 1.5 to 2 minutes slower than your race pace and it seems on my half marathon races I usually run an 11 minute mile so I'm right on track.
It's now almost 12 hours later and I'm sore in several places and not walking up to speed, but I feel tons better than earlier and also feel great that I'm closer to my marathon goal. I know I can do this now because I'm only a 10K away from the actual distance. In my training plan I have a couple more 20 milers planned, one 21 miler and one 22 miler.
I just want to say a huge Thank you to Rhoni Jo for meeting me this morning to do those last 10 miles with me, that ended up being almost 11 miles. I know I completed this long HOT run today because of her.
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