20 miler down.

I had another 20 miler this weekend. I was pumped about it all week, ready to nail it and was even hoping to do better than my last 2o miler. For some reason my legs had been feeling heavy all week long but I tried to push that out of my mind. I'm a pretty positive person and I felt like I would just kill this run for some reason.

Things change once you start running.

I got out the door and started with my gus, my filled bottle and my new pouch. I took my phone because I wanted to take pictures along my route like so many people do to share with everyone of where I was running. Mile one was rough but usually mile one is rough when I'm running in the morning because I'm still a little tired. It just never got better though. I think I hit the proverbial wall once I stepped out the door for my run. Not a good sign

I ran a few different loops, didn't calculate my run correctly and ended .5 of a mile away from my house. Usually this doesn't make a difference to me during a run, but after 20 miles of playing mind games with yourself, when you are done you want to be home. There were some failed things about this run that were totally my fault. I didn't take my ipod. GIANT FAIL. I had nothing to entertain me, I was incredibly bored and didn't run far enough 'out' in my first loop so I was doing weird loops to make up for distance and that's how I got confused and miscalculated.

Each mile I tried to think of different people. I thought of Aron, Maritza, Tara, Alisa, Julianne, Maggie, and all the girls that will be in SD, I thought of some random twitterers but I just never got in the zone. I tried to distract myself by taking pictures, and looking around me, but there weren't too many people out when I started and when I hit the wall BIG time at mile 10, there were people out probably just wondering what in the world I was doing. I was gimping, running fast then slow, I just couldn't pull out of the funk, but you know what I realized during this wonderful long run? That sometimes it's not about being the fastest. It's not about the best time, having the best day, feeling great and totally nailing the workout, it's about running. It's about getting out there and doing it. I didn't want to run at all on Saturday, but I still did it. Looking back yea, it was a crappy way to spend three hours, but at the same time, I'm pretty proud of doing yet another 20 miler. It's just that you have to believe in yourself and do it. Then you can do it, then you can basically do anything.

Then my spirits were cheered a little when an older hot dadish type ran with me for about .5 of a mile. We chatted for a while, I told him I was training for San Diego Rock and Roll. He told me
"Well girl, you look good so don't even worry!" I smiled but then his measly nine miler was done. I trudged forward.

Even though it was one of my worst runs ever, It taught me a lot of lessons. I knew I couldn't stop. I knew I had to keep going. I knew that this would be like what the marathon felt like. It's not the best idea to do every one of your runs alone, but that is what I do.

I laughed at the pictures I had taken, felt bad for the two dead seagulls I saw, smiled at bikers and even hummed to myself. I was pretty cuckoo on this run, but I knew I had to finish. One point I even resorted to tweeting, which oddly enough, I think I was running the fastest all day when I was tweeting.

So you want to see the photo tour of my 20 miler? Wait no more.... It was quite interesting to say the least, but hey, I'm glad I can run, I'm glad I completed it, and I'm glad it's done with. Now I can taper, even though I think I've been tapering for over a month...

I tried to take a picture of myself during my run, this was the best I could do.

Then I run past the Queen Mary on a pretty regular basis. It was still a little bit cloudy but there she is!

There's the beach path that I started on and mostly what I run every day when I am training. It's flat and gorgeous. There's even the Belmont pool in the background! For those of you who are looking at possibly doing The Long Beach 1/2 Marathon or Full Marathon, that is the 1/2 Marathon course!

I recently found this, it's a boardwalk path and I love running on it. The wood is actually very nice to run on and the houses are HUGE and fun to look into. Usually I catch myself staring in all the windows and get embarrassed when there are people inside and catch me looking at them! :)

I realized after my run, that I really liked my new pouch, I wore it on the front to stop the bouncing of the water bottle and disperse the weight more evenly. Then I realized where I was wearing it all day made it look like I was wearing a loincloth or worse trying to hide something. Wha-wha.

On top of the bluff above the beach path. There are always characters up here and I sometimes run up here to switch things up a little bit.

Hi, I'm ChicRunner and I want to DIE! This was on my walk home. So tired. So sore. So far away from my house. Oh well, whatever happened happened.

Then instead of wasting money on ice for an ice bath, I just decided to walk back out to the beach and went in the ocean for my ice bath. It was cold and dirty, but I waited it out and then went home and took a shower. Hooray for my last 20 miler before the full marathon.

Though yesterday isn't my favorite day in the world, I had a good day with my roommate's mom and family. We rented a boat and cruised around the bay, drinking mimosas and eating cheese and crackers and strawberry shortcake. YUM.

On another completely unrelated note, Kymberli from Webbed Foot Photography and I are doing a photo shoot this weekend and I'm ecstatic. Almost as ecstatic as when I found a new HUGE Forever 21 right down the street that I didn't even know about this weekend. I can't wait and I will be sharing some wonderful pictures with you guys as well. :)

Can't wait to catch up on all the Race Reports and every one's weekends. I am thinking that I'm going to be posting some reviews this week and next week everyday for a week I will talk about running and the many things associated with it, like gus, ice baths, training, and starting out. I am no genius but I will offer my thoughts and ideas on the topics and address some of the questions I've gotten recently.


Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

xoxo