After running 6 miles on the 6th and feeling good, I did another 6 mile on the 10th and still felt good so I got the go ahead to try 12 that Saturday (the 13th). I was super nervous about this run!
But I was also excited to get out because it had been a long time since I'd done a long run! I just took it super easy and made my way up my favorite route, City Creek Canyon. I turned around at mile 5, which is one mile up the canyon. I felt really good at this point! Yay!
It was a beautiful day and the weather was so perfectly cool. I wore my long sleeves for the entire run, but didn't feel too cold either. Since I was feeling good when I turned around at mile 5, I added a couple miles on by running up to The Avenues and I got to have this beautiful view of the city as the sun was coming up. I love my town. :)
When I started back down the canyon, my knee started hurting. I really think this is because of the slant in that road because it seems like every time I run up there lately, my knee and hip start to bother me. I don't know, but I hope that's the problem, and I hope that doesn't happen in the race!
The good news was that my stress fracture didn't really even bother me at all! It felt really good! I really took my time on this run, and it actually ended up taking me like 3 hours! Yikes! But I was happy that my leg was feeling good! On the way home I had to stop and wait for a train that had stopped on the tracks.
Two other women caught up to me while I was waiting so I ran and chatted with them the last mile. It turned out that they are also training for the St. George Marathon and they asked me if I was running my 20 miler like they were. Unfortunately, I was not, but I tried not to let that stress me out. They were at mile 11, the same as me, but they had 9 more miles to go. I hope it went well for them, and maybe I'll see them at the race!
My leg felt really good even after my run and the next day so I was feeling really good and happy! Then I went out for 6 miles Wednesday (the 17th, this is 4 days after the 12 miles). I went after I dropped George off at preschool so it was later in the day than I usually run, and it was HOT! I felt really good for the first few miles, but by the time I got home my leg was feeling really sore and I was totally worn out because of the heat! This is how many steps I took for that run... (Still loving my new toy!)
My leg was sore for the next WEEK after that 6 miles! I was feeling really discouraged. I called my doctor because I didn't feel like I should do the 17 miles I had planned on Saturday. He told me to wait until Monday or Tuesday. It was probably better that way because we had Elle's birthday party on Saturday anyway, and I had a cake to make.
Well, I was still a tiny bit sore Monday and Tuesday, plus I just didn't have time to do a long run until Thursday. So, even though that's a lot closer to the race then I would have liked, that's when I tried it out.
It's hard to believe, but I didn't take a single picture on that 17 miles! Haha. It was really nice because I started at 5am and got to run in the dark for the first couple hours. I was nervous about this, but it ended up being so nice and cool and I even wished I had started sooner when the sun started shining on me and it started getting hot. I did 3 out and backs to my house, just in case. The first two I ran up to Memory Grove, then I stopped at home to give the kids hugs before they left for school, then went out onto the parkway trail for 5 more (since that's all I had time for before Pete had to get to work) which gave me a total of 17.
I felt really good and was even able to push the pace a little bit on the last half mile! I am so happy that my leg didn't hurt and that it was just a tiny bit sore afterwards. Again, it was my knee and hip that bothered me the most and my hip was the most sore the next day. Hmmm, don't know if I can do anything about that in the next week. I'm not supposed to run at all until the race now. Scary, hu!?
St. George is in less than a week. A week from now, I will be sitting here writing the race report and hopefully it's a good one! :)
I have a list of goals that goes something like this:
a) FINISH and have a good experience
b) RUN those last 6 miles that I had to walk last time
c) Get a PR by at least beating 5:20
d) Come in under 5 hours (This is if I have a really good day, but I'm not going to stress about this!)
Stay tuned for the results next week!
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