This was a challenging run! Today was dubbed the Celebration Run. It's our longest training run, a full 26.2 miles winding through Golden Gate Park, the Presidio and the Sunset.
Our coach said the purpose of running 26 miles is not to do a "practice marathon" or see how quickly we can run the distance. The purpose is to push back "the wall of endurance." This wall is quite real: each long run has made the previous ones look easy. During the 18 mile run, for example, it was easy to reach 16; during the 20 mile run, it was easy to pass 18. So in theory, this was run was meant to push our endurance past 26 miles.
It is only three weeks until the real marathon, however, and recovering from a long run like today's can take several weeks. That brings me back to today's purpose: to add endurance but to go slowly, take our time, and above all avoid injury.
As the title indicates, I made it to the water station at mile 22 before stopping. My feet and legs were just too stiff to continue. Some running days are good, others are not so good, and today was definitely one of the latter. I started out a little sore and never quite found my stride. So instead of running through the pain and risking injury, I stopped. I got some snacks (the water stations on our training runs are fully stocked), then put my feet up and rested for a few minutes before walking over to the finish line.
To our surprise, there was a balloon arch over the finish and a small crowd of cheering AIDS Marathon volunteers waiting to congratulate us. Despite the slightly cheesy "You are heroes" tagline on the banner, it felt really good. Here's a picture of my pace group, the Teglas. You can click on the picture to see the others I took.
I'm not too worried about only going 22 miles today. I made it to 23 miles a few weeks ago and felt much stronger throughout the run. Running is a day to day thing. And as a beginning marathoner I expect my performance will continue to vary until I turn pro. (Just kidding, Mom.)
And besides, I had to slow down or stop during the 14 and 18 mile training runs too, and at the time those runs pushed me to the limit. Now, after six months of training, I could run 14 miles on a lark! And 18 sounds almost as easy. 26 will come with time.