This past weekend we completed a grueling 20 miles for our long training walk.
GRUELING.
Really grueling. It took me this long to be able to talk about it.
This walk proved that completing a marathon is more mental than physical. Even though physically I was in pretty bad shape and sore, mentally I was beaten and bruised.
It takes a really long time to walk 20 miles.
I'm not even sure how to recap this one. We walked for over 7 hours. I'm not sure if I've just forgotten what happened or if I blocked it from memory. Here's what I do recall...
Super cute Itzy Ritzy bags. BLS packed enough supplies to get us through days of walking. All of the supplies were organized into these very fashionable (& functional) bags.
Blisters. Lots of them. Thank goodness not on my tootsie, put poor BLS had (has)blisters on top of blisters, new blisters forming (& popping) and enough KT tape to fix a high school cross country team.
We LOVE KT tape. If I could swaddle my body in it, I would.
8.5 Miles. Why do I remember this? Well, only because we easily saw at least 5 different signs telling us that we had reached 8 or 8.5 miles. $#*@&%?!?!?!?!? It was our version of Groundhog's Day. Seriously. So confusing.
Peeing in the woods. Again. I've peed in the woods more since starting training for this marathon than I have in the past 20 years. With the exception of the multiple 8.5 Mile Markers and lack of bathrooms, I actually love the Sippo Trail. But really parks people, if you are going to have a 10 mile long trail you should really place some bathrooms besides just at the start or finish. Or at least unlock the ones you have.
Hot Dogs. I became infatuated with hot dogs at mile 8.5 (The first one). Someone was burning something and it smelled like summer and camping. Hot dogs popped in my head and remained there the rest of the day. I had 2 post walk. They were delicious.
Severe pain. With about 3.5 miles to go my right calf started cramping and I felt like I was going to throw up. In hindsight, the 2 liter hydration pack of water is an awesome asset. A bit of Gatorade would be better.
Exploding ice packs. BLS, also in severe pain, tried to pop the ice pack (it was in one of the Itzy Ritzys) to get it cold. She was either so tired or delirious that she couldn't get it to pop to turn cold. Nature Girl stomped on it (at BLS's request), but she was a little too forceful and exploded it all over Monica (from now on to only be refered to as "Elmers" ;-) LOL)! Who immediately turned into a salt-water stained mess. And because all of us were deliriously tired, we laughed like hyenas.
Almost wanting to cry. But, it would have taken too much energy and I didn't have any left.
But, we survived. There were no yay-we-did-it celebratory pictures at the end. I practically crawled to my car, hit DQ for my hot dogs, went home, took an ice bath, slathered up in icy hot, downed 2 bottles of Gatorade, 2 bottles of water and never left the couch for the rest of the day.
I actually didn't feel too horrible the next day except for a chafing issue and severe shooting pains on the top of my right foot. So, we'll call that a success. Luckily this week is a "short" walk. Which means anything less than 10 miles these days.
44 Days 20 Hours 55 Minutes 15 Seconds......
