The 17 miler!

Okay well I have a fuel belt that I hate and this week I will be getting a new one like Heidi's and Wendy's because they have the velcro kind with separate bottles and that's what I need. Heidi has finally convinced me that I need a lot more water than I thought and I'm glad I listened because it meant everything in yesterday's run! I even added a bottle of water to the run after showing up at Heidi's house and her telling me she needed to run in the house and gran me another bottle. The yellow was full for the fuel belt, then we had four places where we had hid our water and my gels because I don't have the dandy little belt like Heidi that holds gels but I will be ordering one online today!!! I used a total of 5 gels and it was great! The way we timed it out, it worked perfect. 0 caffeinated, 1x caffeinated, then 0 caffeinated, then 2x caffeinated and the last one was 1x caffeinated. I think I will add 1-2 more and a pack of gummy bears for the end of the marathon. I forgot to use my body glide and underneath my arms are suffering a little today because of it.

Heidi has been trained by an "Ironman" so she has been gracious to share all of his tips with me and her husband has run a marathon and just did an ultra this past weekend. You better believe I will listen to her when it comes to fueling myself for this race! All of the things she shared with me really WORK!! There is a method to this madness. Doesn't she look cute? She looks like a girl scout with that belt on! :) She switched off between water and accelerade which is another reason I want a fuel belt like this. I usually switch off between water and gatorade but I will be trying out the accelerade method too. That stuff works great!

Heidi has driven the course for Austin. She said something I loved hearing yesterday on our run. "This marathon gives you bragging rights. If you run Austin, you are pretty great because it's a difficult one." She explained that the route we would run on was designed to be comparable to the actual marathon route. We ran hills yesterday like crazy! By mile 14, the hills were no longer intimidating. They hurt but rocked all at the same time. The crazy thing about the run yesterday was the ground we covered. Before I knew it we were over behind Wal Mart off I35 and the toll road 45. We passed DELL, we passed all sorts of places that blows my mind. And there is the hill on Redbud and the hill on Gattis School Rd.! WOWSER!

We talked a lot. We laughed. We prayed together while running. Then we would have periods of no talking and listening to music. It was amazing to experience together. It was funny how we both kind of quit talking at the same times in the run and would hit play on the iPod. I learned some new things about Heidi yesterday. Some things about her Dad who died when she was three. I learned about her spirit and how she is able to encourage even when she is struggling herself. She is an amazing woman.

I won't forget looking over around 14.5 and saying "So my legs should be feeling this way right now?" She said, "Like they are going to break off? YES! Keep going!" Then it happened. I went into never land! Mile 15 came and something weird happened. I panicked! I never stopped running but my mind felt panicky. I felt like I was about to freak out! I said, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Something is wrong." I cried for about ten seconds and Heidi said "It's okay. Breathe. This is normal. Just breathe and listen to your music. Do you feel panicked?" I said "Yes!!." And she calmly said, "It's okay. I promise this is normal and it will pass." I was not in pain but my mind was wigging out! At mile 16 I felt INCREDIBLE! I think I started singing too. :)

This journey is indescribable. It is so much like life that I don't even know how to put it into words. I want EVERYONE to experience what I am experiencing. I SWEAR to you it has changed my mindset RADICALLY.

Heidi just emailed me a plan to follow this week and Saturday is considered to be a recovery day. The only thing I have to do is run a half marathon as fast as I can. HA! I know that sounds insane to those who are not runners but it actually sounds easy now.

I am running the Austin Marathon! WOW!

This morning my old youth pastor and dear friend who I have known since I was 14 years old called this morning and he is thinking about coming to Austin to support me! It's awesome to experience this with friends and family who are supporting me. Incredible!

The Dallas Whiterock marathon that I just went to and did the HALF has a course description. "Flat and fast." When you go to the description for Austin, you will see words like "difficult" or "hills"! I always choose the easy route! ALWAYS! So I am excited to have chosen a not so easy one but I can honestly say that if it were not for Heidi's encouragement, I would have chickened out.

The website says this.

Both race routes favor athletes who have prepared with some hill running in their training and plan to run even splits or negative splits.

My strength is running negative splits! So that makes me smile! The hills? Well Heidi will have me ready for those hills!

And then in October, Wendy and I will tackle Chicago!!! :) Wendy just let me know that Chicago's registration opens on February 1st and guess what? NO HILLS! :)