How I survived my first 19 miler

It's 34 days until my very first marathon!!! It's quite a scary thought, but strangely enough, I feel extremely excited. I've been training hard for it since early June, and only been a runner for about a year now.

Having run my 18 miles two weeks ago, with really great pace for a marathon virgin like me (averaging 9:35 pace, finishing in 2h and 52 minutes), I thought what's another mile on top of that? Well, I just found out. This time around weather played a huge factor in my running performance, it was just too hot and humid, even though I started this run in the early am. My body simply gave up on me and slowed me down, what I thought at the time significantly,  it wasn't all that bad. Runners are always tough when judging/comparing their previous runs, it's simply because we want to get better and better with each run. After my turn around at 9.5 miles, my pace slowed down and I was fighting more physically than mentally, to finish it. I wasn't going to quit, that word has been erased from my vocabulary. I experienced some chafing on my thighs (it's the worst), which hurt me like crazy, but I pushed through and at the end my pace suffered a little bit, 10:10 per mile, finishing in 3h and 13 minutes. I'll take it! 

In the month of August I totaled in 122 miles and my legs have never felt this tired, a good kind of tired. I'm feeling great moving forward with my training. I'm tracking the forecast and seeing cooler temperatures this week. YES!  If I still want to prove to myself that I can do better than my last run (which I will), there's always the 20 miler ;)

Love, 

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