20 miles. check!

"I'm gonna tell you what you're going to do. You're going to run 20 miles and get tired."

Saturday was a beautiful day to run. I did just that. I ran for a little over 4 hours and put in 20 miles in that time. I still can't believe that I ran that long. It definitely didn't feel like it at the time, but boy am I still recovering! I ran with Anja, who moved to Knoxville not too long ago, but came back in town for this run. We have a similar pace and we definitely kept each other entertained. I think around mile 17 I started getting loopy, as all the blood was rushing to my legs and out of my brain. At one point I had to stop running because I couldn't run, laugh, and not pee in my pants. So I figured the easiest and least embarrassing of the three to stop was running. During the run Anja told me that she has now embraced the ice bath. I take ice baths after every long run to help recovery and I swear by them. It sounds painful, but it helps so much! Her thing was to get a couple of bags of ice, chips, and chocolate milk and enjoy them all at the same time. After our run we were talking to our mentor Jim and he started talking about strawberry milk. I have never had strawberry milk and at the time it didn't sound too appetizing. On my way home from the run I stopped at Publix to get my 40lbs of ice and in the process picked up sour cream and onion potato chips and strawberry milk. I got home ate some breakfast and prepared my ice bath, complete with a plate of sour cream and onion potato chips and strawberry milk. It sounds completely disgusting now, but at the time it was delicious. Just what I needed after a 20 mile run!

Unfortunately my run didn't go as well as I had hoped. I went to the doctor last week with a sore foot and he diagnosed it as tendonitis. He assured me that running on it will not harm it and I am free to do my 20 miles. So I did. Although it hurt in the beginning, it was bearable. At some point around mile 8 it really started bothering me and I tried to keep trudging through. It always hurt worse when I stopped to walk and then tried to run again. I didn't think much of it because as long as the doc said I could run, I was running. I had to do that 20 miles to prepare me mentally more than anything. As I got ready for bed that night I looked down at my throbbing foot and realized why it had been so stiff and achy all night - it was HUGE! I also had some bruising around my ankle and my entire foot was swollen. It didn't look like just tendonitis anymore. I go to therapy on Friday, so I am sure they will either assure me that that is normal to have swelling and bruising, or they will figure out what is really wrong with it. It has really gotten me down because I really just want to run and it scares me to not run. I am so close now that I don't want to show up on the starting line thinking that I can't do it. Rest is definitely what I will be doing this week and hopefully next week I will be back full steam ahead.