Every year, hubby & I work for a company called Chesterfield Catering at the Great Forest Park Balloon Race in St. Louis. It's awesome, but extremely exhausting. This year, the company had six 20-foot booths selling a huge variety of products - kettle corn, roasted corn, brats/burgers/hot dogs, corn dogs, funnel cakes, nachos and lemonade. In addition to that, they have 7 lemonade carts that also sell kettle corn. I spent 6 hours Thursday helping to get all this set up - moving tables, fryers, product, large boxes of various items, etc. Friday, we started with the final moving of items around noon, with the event starting at 4. I run a 20-foot funnel cake and corn dog tent - 4 cashiers, a corn dog fryer & two funnel cake fryers. I spent the next 6 hours leaning over a fryer pouring funnel cake mix. My deltoids have never gotten such a great workout! Finally, 10pm came and we got to close up shop and start clean up. By the time we were through cleaning and getting some things set for the next day, it was after 1am. Saturday morning started back in the fields at 9:30 with the event kicking off at noon. It was more of the same stuff from Friday night - pouring funnel cake batter for 5 or so hours. It was 7:30pm before we were cleaned up enough to call it a night. But the fun didn't stop there... we were asked to come back Sunday for 3-4 hours to help pack all the fryers/signs/tents/product back into the trucks.
Sunday was supposed to have been my 20-mile day. With the added shift, there was just no way to get it done... forget the fact that my legs were already tired from being up on them and doing heavy lifting for 3 full days in a row. So I pushed it off til Monday.
Yeah - that didn't work so well. Come Monday, the two-day-after-effect had kicked in. My hammies were sore and my knees ached. Ugh. I've GOT to get this 20 miler done! I have a second one on the schedule but I have odd plans for getting that one accomplished.
Finally yesterday, I was sitting on the couch and decided I finally felt recovered enough to go for it. And I couldn't have asked for better weather... it was in the low-60s and sunny. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Ate breakfast and off I went. My goal was to break 3 hours for 20 miles... which would put me at my goal pace for the marathon, 9 minute miles.
My first loop was a 6.15 mile loop with 3 loops around a half mile track at a park mid-way through the loop. I finished those 7.65 miles with an average pace of 8:23! SWEET! Much faster than I had anticipated, especially considering this course has some really intense & unforgiving hills in it. Stopped back at the house to let hubby know that I was still alive and moving. Even though I wasn't the least bit hungry, I grabbed a bite of a Luna bar, drank a glass of Nuun to make sure I stayed hydrated, and out I went for round 2.
The second loop was just the 6.15 mile loop and I finished with a total mileage of 13.8 and an average pace of 8:26. Okay, so I slowed a little bit, but not bad... and the wind had picked up quite a bit between the first two. Had to take a gel around mile 12 as I was finally starting to feel the fatigue/hunger kick in. Back to the house to let hubby know I was still okay, and for another bite of the Luna bar and another glass of Nuun. Okay - here we go! Just one more loop!
The final 6.2 miles were rough. About a mile from the house, my stomach started acting up and had me hoping I could make it to the park bathrooms which were about half way through the loop. And to make it even more fun, the wind had picked up even more. I had a cross wind on the first 1.5 mile stretch which was causing me to kick myself in the inner calves, a serious headwind for the next mile, and then another crazy-calf-kicking cross wind for the next 2 miles. At this point, my legs were definitely fatigued and I decided to fore go the bathroom stop in fear that my legs would not want to work if I took the break. I was absolutely thrilled when I got to the last stretch where the wind was at my back... however it was at this point that I realized I should have worn sunscreen. Ooops! Yeah, I got a little sunburned doing a 20-mile run between 10:30 and 1:30.
Finally got back to the house, knowing I had slowed significantly during this run, to find that I still managed an average of an 8:40/mile pace for the 20 miles. I'll take it! Even though the last 10k was rough, I still was well under my goal pace of 9 minute miles. An 8:40 average is an 3:52 marathon! I'd be ecstatic to see that on the race clock in two months!
Grabbed myself a glass of chocolate soy milk and another glass of Nuun and headed for the ice bath. Topped that off with wandering around the rest of the day in my CW-X 3/4 Stabilyx compression tights. Surprisingly, my legs don't feel too bad today. This was my longest run since running the runDisney Goofy Challenge in January. And it most definitely was my fastest long run EVER! I've only ever done one other 20 mile training run (despite having run 35 marathons or longer), and completed that in 3:20.
I definitely think my choice of breakfast helped fuel me through my first 12 miles. I don't think I've ever gone that long before feeling like I needed recharge. I may have to consider doing this before races. I had a bowl of oat bran made with soy milk and topped with blueberries and a sliced banana. It definitely sat well and kept me full for a long time.
I think it was the gel that was causing the stomach issues - it's been 9 months since my body has had one. I've gotten myself in the habit of eating real food during long runs instead of gels. I'm not sure how I'm going to work this on race day though. My SparkleSkirts do have awesome pockets for carrying things on the run. I think my Clif Kids Fruit Ropes would actually do well in the waist pocket. My other favorite item is the Clif Crunchy Granola Bars... though that won't be nearly as easy to carry so that might have to used just pre-race.
Overall, I'm THRILLED with my progress right now. I feel like I have that sub-4 marathon in the bag. Hopefully race day agrees with me.
My long run Sparkle Skirt of the day: Wild Animal!
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