So I’m in the process of training for a 50k race. I’ve never considered myself a runner, and until this year I had never consistently run. Since last October I have been consistently working on my endurance. Today’s run was the culmination of the training program: 26 miles.
This was my first marathon.
- Distance: 26.35mi (or 29.37 if you believe Gaia & Caltopo)
- Elevation: 4230′ gain
- Time: 7:17
As far as I can tell, this run went pretty well. The first 15 miles felt pretty easy. This is a huge win for me, to be able to run 15 miles without really feeling terrible. Things went progressively downhill for me from there.
Sarah had wanted to spend some time at her place on Whidbey, so suggested we run the Deception Pass marathon route. The route is a meandering summary of Deception Pass state park: We spent this period running loops on the north side of Deception Pass and then south up to Goose Rocks. Then we moved down to Cornet Bay, where we ran an interior loop. We were in forest, on rocks, on sand, on the shores, and even did a bit of steep scrambling out by Lighthouse Point (oops).
I noticed a couple things that I need to work on:
First, I hunch when I run. This is bad for many reasons, but of note here is that I actually got tired of hunching because it had been so long. And by then I was so tired that standing up straight was a pain.
Second, I need to consume more calories in liquid form. Eating bars for that long is really a challenge to both eat and breathe and also to digest while running. I was able to consume more calories than my previous long runs, but want to explore more active nutrition.
Sarah, as always, is amazingly fast. By mile 16 she was running away from me and then back at me. We split ways on the South side of the Cornet Bay loop and she took a shortcut back to the car, getting there almost an hour ahead of me. Badass 🙂
I’m incredibly grateful to have made it this far in my training. I don’t feel completely ready for my 50k race, but I am confident that I’ve done everything I can to prepare. I have one more hard week of training, with hills and then an 18 mile run on Saturday. Then it’s two weeks of taper into the race. I am so counting on that taper …
