My First 20 Mile Run

This past Sunday was my first 20 mile run. It went very good, in fact better than I expected. It is not that I expected to Bonk or have too much difficulty, but I did expect to feel like walking more than I did.

It was an early morning for a Sunday morning when the alarm clock went off at 4:40. I needed to get out the door by 5:00 am if I was going to get the full 20 miles in before church. I started the morning with some water and a little bit of Gatorade and a piece of whole wheat bread. I prefer to eat a whole wheat bagel because it stays with me longer but there weren't any in the house.

Shortly after 5:00 I was out the door, water bottle in one hand, Gatorade in the other. I had one package of Sport Beans and tunes for the road. Have I ever told you that I hate carrying my hydration in my hands? I really need to look at other options but I just don't have the extra cash flow at this time........ just bought two new pair of shoes from Gerald AKA RaceSpeed over at www.telarun.com who always gives me a good deal and great advice (and doesn't even ask that I say anything on my blog about him) One pair for myself to replace my 400+ mile shoes, and the other for my daughter Payton to replace her 400+ mile shoes. Payton really needed the new shoes badly.... you should see how fast she runs!

OK..... I will get back on track now!

I started the run off at the pace I wanted to hovering right above the 10:00/mile pace. I wanted to make sure I could complete the entire run without any issues. I started to sip at the Gatorade about 2 miles in and then again every 1.5-2.0 miles until it was gone. I switched to the water at about mile 13 and shortly after ate the Sport Beans. I later in my run ran around a park so I was able to refill my water bottle so I was well hydrated the entire run.

I didn't really have any idea where I would get the entire 20 miles in, I only planned up till about 13 miles and then did the rest as I came to it. This is one of the beauties of running with my MyTach GPS watch. I do not know what I would do without it! It is so freeing to be able to run without having to think about where you are going or how far you have been. I just kept running until it said 20 miles. :)

There also is the downside to not planning out your route. I ended up having quite a few large hills in the last 6 miles of my run. These hills are not horrible, but hitting them when I did in my run made them that much more difficult.

I managed to keep running the entire 20 miles even though it became a mental battle at least one time in the last few miles. I even was able to drop the pace a bit for most of the second half of the run, ending with a better overall pace than my 18 miler just a couple weeks earlier. I ended just a short walk from home and was happy both to be home, and also to have just accomplished such a hugh milestone!

Just a couple weeks ago after accomplishing my first 18 mile run I had a little scare. Monday morning following the 18 mile Sunday I ran a bit harder and faster than I should have in my 4 mile recovery run. Later that same week following my 9 miler I ran a 4 miler, again much harder than I should have and started to feel some pain in my left Thigh. I took the next 3 days off and rested until my 12 miler on Sunday. Luckily the pain has not returned, but I did get a little nervous.

All is going really good with my marathon training. I am looking forward to my Second Half Marathon, The Atlanta 13.1 Marathon (funny name) in just a couple weeks on October 4th, and then my First Full Marathon, The Chickamauga Marathon, on November 14th.

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow - virtual4now

16 comments:

  1. what a thrill Tim. Congrats on your first 20 miler. I hate carrying water too. I'd rather stage it on the route than carry a belt or by hand (unless on a trail)

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  2. Great job Tim. Isn't it an amazing feeling of accomplishment, running 20 freaking miles?! People may think we are crazy, but we KNOW we are! Nice consistant pace, well done. Stay healthy and have a great marathon!

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  3. Congrats on the 20 miler, that's great! I'll be going out this Sat for mine...I'm a little nervous, but it's nice when other people do it for the first time and live! lol Nice job to your daughter too!

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  4. Congratulations! It sounds like it went very well. I've got one coming up this Sunday myself!

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  5. awesome job; sounds like you hit it perfectly!

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  6. Great job Tim! Just amazing! You've got a lot of followers cheering you on virtually!

    I have to say I've only done one 20 miler myself ALONE and it just about killed me. Mentally it's as tough as it gets I think. Maybe for your next one, if there is one in your current training plan, you can run a bit with someone else? It makes a huge difference.

    I'm going to try to do a 20 on sunday, it'll be three weeks until the Bay State marathon and my last super long run.

    Take care and keep running!

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  7. Great job on the 20 miler, you're on the home stretch now!

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  8. nice job on the 20 miler! congrats on surviving your first :) and alone no less! i'm not a fan of carrying a water bottle either, but i'm even less of a fan of the belt thingys so i just gotta deal with it.

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  9. Congrats on your first 20!!

    The rest of your long runs will seem like a breeze now :)

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  10. Sounds like training is going very well. Congrats on the 20 miler! I hear you on having available funds...I'm in need of another pair of shoes!
    I think it's awesome that you did this before church!! So cool!

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  11. Thanks all for stopping by and the comments! :)

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  12. Thanks all for stopping by and the comments! :)

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  13. awesome job; sounds like you hit it perfectly!

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  14. what a thrill Tim. Congrats on your first 20 miler. I hate carrying water too. I'd rather stage it on the route than carry a belt or by hand (unless on a trail)

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  15. I just came across this today when I was googling around after I too completely my first 20 mile run. I am sure that the marathon you did after this made this run pale in comparison.....but I suspect you'll never forget this 20 miler, just as much as you'll never forget the marathon you did after this. Inspirational read, thanks. 

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  16. Hopefully by now you have figured out by now that the Gatorade and bagel are not needed. For a 20 miler or even 26.2, no additional nutrition is needed. You should be burning fat, not sugar. Bread and Gatorade are just sugar. Switch to a no-carb diet and see what happens? The first two weeks are rough, but after that it is quite amazing.

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