To be honest, I never thought I’d make it 18 miles. The way my hip felt on Tuesday after 4.5 miles, I was really starting to think that I might not get to the starting line at WDW. I had a chiropractic adjustment yesterday and some electro-stimulation to my right gluteal region. Still, something felt a little wrong deep in my hip. I went to a party on Friday night and had nothing but water to drink, but I was out late, so I held off my run until twilight. I left the house at about 5:30 PM not really knowing what to expect, but thinking I might not be out for long.
I wanted to run, though. Deep down, I knew that I’ve come a long way since I started this training program. I focused on a mantra - 18 pain free. I walked a mile as warmup. I had no pace goals and no real plan for the run. It was kind of a “screw it, let’s see what you can do” type of thing. So, after my warmup I started running.
I started out at about an 8:30 pace. Usually, I would think that was way too fast, but I was far to worried about my hip to think about my pace. I was just letting my body do what it wanted to. I drank too much water just beforehand, so at around 2.25 miles, I stopped for a pee….the first time I’ve had to do that in a training run and another lesson learned. I then ran to my usual drinking fountain and stopped for another walk break.
My hip felt great….my whole body felt great. I was taking longer walk breaks, but my pace while running was between 8:15 and 8:30 per mile, so I was making up for that. When I reached 6 miles, a consumed a Clif shot and drank some more water. My hip was still feeling great and at that point I knew I had 18 miles inside of me. I continued running between 8:15 and 8:30 minutes per mile, stopping for a walk break whenever I encountered a water fountain.
I began to feel sore between miles 13 and 14. Everything seemed to tighten up a bit, but there was no serious discomfort. My walk breaks became a little more frequent, but I manged to run my way to the 18 mile mark and finished in 3:08:52. Not great, but given the circumstances, I was overjoyed.
Planned workout
1 mile warmup
18 miles at whatever pace
1 mile cool down
Actual workout
1 mile warmup
18 miles at 10:29 pace
1 mile cool down