CTS 1,139: Doing Twenty

I haven't run 20 miles since the 2000 Portland Marathon. I'd been frustrated my last two outings of being seemingly unable to break through 16 miles.

But a cat will not be denied.

Today I headed out early in order to get my run in before work. I looked up where I could buy Sport Beans for energy, and lo and behold it turned out that I could get some from the grocery store closest to my place. That's the only non-running specialty store in the area that has them.

And again, they are near my place.

I loaded up two bottles of Gatorade and then set off. The weather was nice and cool and I didn't really think much about running, except just to make sure that I ran nice and steady.

In Decatur, after the first hour, I stopped to drink one of the bottles and eat a bag of Sport Beans. They were pretty good, actually.

I felt pretty good going up the Lullwater-Oakdale-Springdale hills, possibly because I ran them the other day as a regular 10K distance run.

I didn't stop on the long hill at The By Way up to Briarcliff. At that point I reached two hours but couldn't refuel yet because the exhaust from passing cars was too great.

So I ran up to the top of the Stillwood hill. Then drank some of the second bottle of Gatorade. I ate some of the Sport Beans and kept eating some in the bag up the second Stillwood hill. I found that eating them while running up the hill helped my concentration.

I crossed North Highland Avenue and continued to Piedmont Park. In the park, they've already spraypainted the turnaround point so that was nice to see. Then I went up the big 12th Street hill to Peachtree (Mile 23 of the race is just before this). I continued on to Spring and then turned up to 5th Street along the course, just as I did on another run earlier in the week.

I was at 18 miles at this point, pretty much all I had to do this week. But I still had to run back home. I felt that if I was really hurting I'd stop. But it was pretty good.

I ran back along the half-marathon route on Juniper, stopped to get a bottle of Powerade on 10th Street and ran back into the park. I hit 20 miles on the hill on Virginia Avenue by the middle school.

Between 14 and 20 miles I had tinges of cramping in my legs, something that I feel got better after I had some energy drink. Maybe it's an improvement since during the half marathon I'd have some tinges at about mile 11.

The main thing though was that I felt pretty good about running and possibly could even run the whole way when the race comes.

But either way I'm happy how this turned out. I'll probably do two more long runs before the race. I think I'm ready.

Time: 8:50 a.m.
Temp: 38 degrees
Gear: Nike windbreaker, CFLST, SST (Levi), shorts, running pants, gloves, hat, Nike Air Pegasus 26+ (AP/O).
Drink: 2 bottles Gatorade, 1 bottle Powerade
Food: 2-1/4 bags of Sport Beans