16 Miles of Torture

A day off and a well deserved one after yesterdays run!

Yesterday was our planned 15 mile run. Something i was both dreading but excited about too. The dread was for obvious reasons, ie. the thought of running for 2 and a half hours. The excitement as it would be a run to beat my personal best of 13 miles.
Phil had spent Friday afternoon on Gmap to find us a route & had chosen a route of 7 and a half miles which we would run 2 laps of.
I always leave the routes up to Phil.

We planned to wake early (ish) yesterday morning to eat breakfast, let that settle & then head off to the park. That wasn't exactly what happened though. What did happen is that Phil woke up to get breakfast from the local shop, only to step out of the door & feel what I can only describe as an Irish September heat wave. When Phil discovered this I was still snoring & drooling on my pillow but he soon broke the news on his return.
Now before my running days, as a sun worshipper, I would have prayed for a sunny Saturday, I would have been in the park in my bikini soaking up the rare rays that September has to offer, but now as a runner I find myself cursing them & instead wishing for a day with little breeze & a little drizzle. But there was nothing cursing could do so we had to make a decision.
We chose to wait until later in the day for the sun to go down a little. We waited until about half 5 for this as it was being very stubborn. After parking up & preparing ourselves it was 6pm by time our run began.

On any run my muscles usually take about 2 miles to warm up so for the first 2 miles with my calves feeling very tight I wasn't worrying. It was only after those first 2 miles when they still felt as tight i began to think. I remembered that on Thursday when we ran to my apartment from work, we had not remembered to stretch. Very silly I know. For the rest of that lap that was all I could think about it. I was feeling sore, tired & to my dismay, I felt defeated. I'd had such a good run the week before, in comparison yesterdays run felt like my worse run ever.

By the end of the first lap we stopped off at the car for a couple of minutes to stretch our legs & refuel. I was glad of this rest even though it was for only a couple of minutes. We were soon back running on on to our second lap.
The first half mile of the second lap wasn't too bad after our mini break but that feeling did literally only last half of mile & then I was back to feeling sore, tired & defeated. I continued regardless as we really did need to complete the 15 this week or we would find ourselves off course with not enough time to get back on track. I was very stubborn.
By the 3rd mile of the second lap I was now feeling aches & pains in my feet, my knee's & my thighs. The pains in my calves had either gone or were being over shadowed by my new found pains. Then after an another couple of miles I began to wonder if I was actually just imaging these pains & wondering if in fact, there was absolutely nothing wrong with me at all. I told Phil of how I was feeling & he agreed that it was probably mostly in my head & was probably caused by starting my run with such a negative attitude. He was probably right but I felt it was too late to change my attitude. I would have to push on with my phantom aliments.
Phil tried many tactics to occupy my mind. First of all he tried running ahead so I could watch his feet or legs as I often like to do, but he was getting faster? I was getting slower & so a huge gap would be between us. I felt worse. Telling him so, he decided on his second tactic. Talking. This only annoyed me though as he kept asking me stupid questions that I couldn't think of answers to as I was too tired to do anything else except put one foot in front of the other. At the time I didn't think he was being of much help but now I think of how hard he was actually trying to make me feel better.
Starting the run at 6pm we had guessed it would get dark near the end of the run but it actually got dark a little earlier. We were near the end of our run so I didn't mind too much, but our final stretch was a straight road & though I could see the ground on where to run, I could not see anything ahead of me or surrounding me that I usually could. I could not see the brown bunker or the cricket fields to which I would usually use as a guide as to how far I have left to run. I started to get scared & then out of nowhere I started to panic. My throat closed up & I couldn't get my breath. I stopped running & Phil started to panic & was trying to calm me down so I would be able to get my breath back & after a short while, though it felt like much longer, I did. Phil had gotten a fright though & refused to continue running but we were so close to the end that I said I would continue running with or without him, and so we both continued on. We soon reached the finish line & after a telling off from Phil for not listening to my body & being too stubborn that I caused a panic attack upon myself, he broke the news that we had not completed 15 miles but 16 miles!!
I was overjoyed!
After finishing what I thought was 15, I felt a little disappointed in myself for having a panic attack so close to the end. I felt like I had failed somehow, but as soon as I discovered it was 16 my disappointment turned into pride.

After a good stretch we set off back to Phil's, feeling tired but overjoyed.
Now with our day off today, the aches & pains have finally subsided & I can see the run for what it really was, a great achievement. Both Phil & I can count on one hand how many people we know that have run as far as we did & that includes counting each other & ourselves.
I am very proud of us & even more so that we finished 16 miles in 2 hours & 39 minutes! It actually turns out that what I thought was my worst run was actually my best.