One long walk

Today, we walked the furthest that we have...ever. This was a huge milestone for me for quite a few reasons. The longest we'd done before was 9.3 miles. And while yes, that was HUGE, in my mind, it still wasn't "close" to 13.1. Yes, it's less than 4 miles to it, but still. I think 11-12 miles was a big mental hurdle I wanted so badly to jump before the actual half, so I knew going into today that I was going to HAVE to get up and do this, or I'd never be able to do it in the half.

We got up this morning around 5:20 and got out the house abit before 6. After a brief stop at Racetrac to air up the stroller tires, we were on the trail at 6:17am. I knew it was going to be a hard walk. The last long walk we did was 2 weeks ago, and it was "only" 8 miles. Plus we hadn't had that many short walks either due to AF. I was nervous. I had D with me in the stroller which I've found automatically slows me down. My biggest goal going into it was to get under 4 hours, which I did. Barely....lol

D fell asleep around Mile 2, and slept for 3.5 miles!! That was awesome for me, because I really had time to get my mind right and focused without him wiggling around and driving me nuts. So that really worked out! It's funny, so many times, at mile 2, 3, and 4, etc, I wanted to turn around and go back. My coworker did the Hotter than Hell 100 today on his bike, and I kept telling myself, if HE can do that on a bike, I can SO do 11 on foot. So I pressed on. I'm glad I picked the trail I did. It was 5.5 miles one way, so once I hit that 5.5, it was just going back, which is easier mentally on me.

The only bad part in the walk, was around 9.5-10 miles. I stopped a second to get another bottle of Propel out of the stroller and a wave of dizzyness washed over me. I ended up having to sit down on the side of the trail for about 10 minutes, tossing back animal crackers, until I felt better. We then continued on but I was hurting. My feet and legs both. It ended perfectly though because at mile 10.5, a member of the Lucky 13 Run Team I'm on caught up with us finishing HER run, and she walked the last half mile with us, that was awesome! And then right before the end (maybe 2 parking lots over from where we parked), we spotted the Plano Pacers finishing up their awards, and wouldn't you know it, 3 more Heels and Hills chicks! So we stopped a few minutes to chat with them.

I finished the 11.02 mile walk at 3:55. It would have been better without the stops but I don't regret them. I still made it under 4 hours...*grin* I'm really pleased with today, that I pushed through all the doubt (especially having not walked much lately) and pressed through it. My usual M.O. is to hit those hurdles and quit. But this time, I didn't, I might have dodged some hurdles but I'm still out here jumping them. So I am very proud of myself tonite. I'm hurting some right now but its not bad. And so, all that said...4 more weeks to go til the half!! I can't wait!