Long run, long post

Sunday I ran longer than I have ever run in my life. SIXTEEN MILES. Can you even believe it?

We woke up Sunday at 5:45am. We ate the pb&j sandwiches that I made the night before. We packed a backpack with dry clothes, then unpacked it and decided to wear those clothes over our running clothes. It was a cold morning - mid thirties - and, thanks to DST, we weren't going to see the sun for a couple more hours. We drove to the MAX station and got on the train around 6:20am. We made it into Portland by 7am. We stripped off the dry clothes, packed them back in the backpack, and gave the bag to the clothes check. Then we were off to "warm up". As we left, you could already see the people starting to gather for the 2010 Adidas Shamrock Run.

Now, the race we had signed up for was the 15k - 9.3 miles. Because were were slated to run 16 miles that morning, we needed to knock 6.7 out before the race started. We headed out in the opposite direction of the race and had a great run. On our way back we could hear the bag pipes and saw the start of the 5k. I have NEVER seen that many people running in my life.

We got back around 8:10 and our race was to start at 8:40. We made use of the porta-potties, grabbed some electrolytes from a vendor stand, and got in line for the race. 6.7 down, 9.3 left. Oh, I may have forgotten to mention. The 9.3 would be up Terwilliger - my arch nemesis.

Off we went. It took us 7 minutes to get across the start line to give you an idea as to how many people there were. My legs felt good and it was fun seeing everyone dressed up. As we hit mile 2 and the start of the uphill, we passed by a water stop that I decided I didn't need. Then we climbed. The climb went okay. I kept a pretty steady pace and I feel like training that hill really helped. I was tired, but I made it. You could definitely pick out the people that had never experienced Terwilliger before. I felt so bad for them - mostly because I knew how much further they had to go. It's no bunny hill.

Trudging along, we get to the top of the hill. I can see a water stop in the distance - thank goodness. We get there, and there are no cups, just jugs of water that people are swigging from and a lady volunteer apologizing to the exhausted runners. I passed up on the communal jugs.

4 more miles. All downhill. Yes please. My legs were dead. Totally dead. But downhill, I can do downhill. Looking at the results from Mike's GPS, I actually improved my pace over that last four miles. Near the 8 mile marker, I was feeling pretty tired. It was at that point that I remembered that I get a medal for finishing. I turned to Mike and exclaimed, "I get a medal!" So, for the next 1.3 miles, my legs kept going with the help of a downhill and the visions of a finisher's medal.

The finish was ahead of me - finally. I stretched my legs as far as I could, crossed the line, and then started looking for my medal. I was like a little kid looking for her lost dog. I was asking random people where my medal was. A volunteer asked me for my timing chip. Before I gave it to her, I demanded that she tell me where my medal was. She pointed over to another group of volunteers handing out small plastic bags containing medals. I hurried over, got my baggie, ripped it open, and put on my medal. I had run a 15k - scratch that - I had just run 16 MILES!!!

We went over to the clothes check, got our sweats, changed, and then headed over to get our beer and chowder. Both were fantastic. We fell asleep on the MAX ride home. Sunday was a lazy afternoon :)