jennifermaria
Cathlete
Just had to share my excitement with my fellow fitness enthusiasts 
.
I'm in the home stretch (3 weeks left!!) of training for my first full marathon (I don't care if I've done 7 half-marathons, it's a BIG jump to do a full LOL!), and yesterday was the biggest day of my training--the "dreaded" 20-miler, after which we are officially in taper and we'll be decreasing our mileage significantly until our actual event. 3 weeks from today, eek!
Anyway, I had been dreading this 20-miler all season. After 4 seasons with Team in Training and watching the full marathoners go up, up, up in mileage, while the highest mileage I'd ever had to run until this year was 12 miles, I often thought to myself, "Boy, I'm so glad I'm only doing a half--I could never last 20 miles!" Well, guess what? I DID IT!! And not only did I do it, I FELT FANTASTIC! So fantastic that I sprinted-literally sprinted--the last 1/4 mile of the run. I couldn't believe it.
I'm still on a high (and surprisingly, not that sore, although I will be doing yoga in a few min just to make sure I get those stretches in), and I can't believe that I did what I always said I couldn't do. Now granted, in the real thing, I'd have to run 6 more, but I'm taking it a day at a time and I just know on the actual race day, all of the thousands of people I'll be running with--and more importantly, the honorees we have on the team, the real-life heroes who have beaten and/or are still battling cancer--will give me inspiration and motivation when I need it the most to push through those last few miles.
So excited!!
. I'm in the home stretch (3 weeks left!!) of training for my first full marathon (I don't care if I've done 7 half-marathons, it's a BIG jump to do a full LOL!), and yesterday was the biggest day of my training--the "dreaded" 20-miler, after which we are officially in taper and we'll be decreasing our mileage significantly until our actual event. 3 weeks from today, eek!
Anyway, I had been dreading this 20-miler all season. After 4 seasons with Team in Training and watching the full marathoners go up, up, up in mileage, while the highest mileage I'd ever had to run until this year was 12 miles, I often thought to myself, "Boy, I'm so glad I'm only doing a half--I could never last 20 miles!" Well, guess what? I DID IT!! And not only did I do it, I FELT FANTASTIC! So fantastic that I sprinted-literally sprinted--the last 1/4 mile of the run. I couldn't believe it.
I'm still on a high (and surprisingly, not that sore, although I will be doing yoga in a few min just to make sure I get those stretches in), and I can't believe that I did what I always said I couldn't do. Now granted, in the real thing, I'd have to run 6 more, but I'm taking it a day at a time and I just know on the actual race day, all of the thousands of people I'll be running with--and more importantly, the honorees we have on the team, the real-life heroes who have beaten and/or are still battling cancer--will give me inspiration and motivation when I need it the most to push through those last few miles.
So excited!!
