Healthy Writers Club: Eighteen Mile Run

"It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse." - Ann Trason

 

In order to complete a marathon you have to run. The more you run the easier it becomes. In order to get the same result you have to run faster and farther. I started running in 2007. I still remember the sense of elation I felt when I ran a mile and a half without having to stop and walk. Running is a true addiction.  It takes more of the drug to get the same sense of elation. It then became a 5k to feel elation, next a 10k, then a half marathon, and finally a full marathon. Now I am training for the Southern Indiana Classic Marathon on April 6^th. Today was an 18 mile run, I covered the distance in 3:11 a little slower than I would have liked. Today was cold, windy, and the temperature was around 25 when I started running.

 

 

I ran along the Warrick Wellness Trail. It was recently completed and there is not much traffic on it.

 

These pictures were taken approximately 5 -6 miles into my run.

 

                                   I was really starting to warm-up at this point not feeling nearly as cold.

 

 

            I made it the entire 18 miles without having to stop and walk. The last mile and half was really tough, I wanted to stop, part of me was saying I did not really have to go that far today. It is amazing how much of running is actually mental and not physical. Today near the end of my long run, I struggled to overcome self-doubt and a desire to give up. But at the end of mile eighteen the sense of accomplishment made all my internal struggles well worth it. Today I achieved my goal for which I am grateful.

             What do you do to keep going on your long runs?