Half Marathon - Almost

I did my 13 mile run yesterday. It didn't do 13.1, like I had planned. I made a common rooky mistake. I wore a new pair of sneakers for the first time on the run. I figured - oh, it's only 13 miles, so it can't be bad. It was aweful. They felt really stiff, and my middle toe on the right was really hurting by mile 3. I had to edit my run and my walk style. I know - I should not do that because it could hurt something else. But, I got through my 13 miles. It was the most painful run I have done to date. As soon as I got to 13.01, I stopped and took off those shoes! My feet feel fine today - and did last night as well. So, no permanent damage. I will break in the new shoes before the next really long run - 17 miles in two weeks.

I did this run a little different as well. I took the dog out first and we did 5.09 miles together. It was raining when we started, and the leaves on the ground were a little slick. I was hurting and went home after the 5 miles. I stopped to pee (I always have to do that when running I guess), then immediately got onto my home treadmill. The treadmill didn't help the pain, and I much prefer to run outside (who would have known that when i started all this?), so after exactly 2 miles in 30:02, I went back out for another 5 miles. I ran/walked to the running park that is 2 miles away. I figured as long as I could get there, I'd be forced to get more miles because I had to get back home. I did a 1 mile lap there, then headed home again. I got home with 0.94 miles left to do, so back on the treadmill. When I hit 0.95 miles, I stopped! So, I had to add my distances (twice on the treadmill, and once on the Garmin), and add my times (which my wonderful hubby wrote down from the treadmill).

I did 13 miles in 3 hours, 26 minutes! The Disney marathon requires 16:00 miles, sustained through 26.2 miles. That would be 3:28 for the 13 miles. So, I beat it by 2 minutes!!! The first mile overall was my slowest. That was the section in the woods with the dog, and I did it in ~20 minutes. (I was worried about wet leaves, and trying hard to stretch out muscles. I was damaged after last week's run, so I didn't want a repeat.) I made up the time, and my fasted mile was towards the end of the first five miles - 13:27. That was when I realized that running (instead of walking) made my toe hurt less. The last five miles had very little running, mostly walking - but that is ok for Disney.

I haven't taken an Tylenol, and I guess I won't. I like that I can recover. Everything is just stiff.