Omaha and a treadmill marathon.

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I am trying to make this short and sweet since the sofa and some back episodes of Warehouse 13 on Hulu are calling my name!

My friend Erika just turned 40 and in true runner fashion she held a "Mama Goes Masters" virtual race.  She had several different categories for distance to choose from.   I had toyed with all of the distances in my mind and when it came down to it, I just felt like running.  

I ran the race in Omaha in the exercise room of the Candlewood suites hotel I stayed at. (I just said wood, hehe)

Let me back up a bit.

As I said in my previous post, I love to drive.  I especially love to drive while listening to an audio book while watching the lovely rolling hills dotted with dozens and dozens of windmills!  You can just make a few out in the background.  These bad boys should be everywhere.  The two hours and some change it takes to get to Omaha from Des Moines went by very quickly and I was in good spirits. As an aside, I have found the following list to come in very handy on trips.

Some essentials of a road trip are as follows

• a swiss army knife with a sharp blade.  The sharp blade part really makes a difference. Thanks to Jaymon mine was sharp.
• a roll of duct tape.
• a towel
• some plastic bags like trash bags.
• a good sturdy bag 

Of course you need clothes and toiletries but my weekend trips are pretty simple with a traveling dress , some running skirts, a pair of VFF KSO Treks just in case and some tank tops.  I was set to do 5 nuun samplings over the course of the weekend and I was going to get in some running at the lake not far from my house and hopefully do the 4 mile distance of Erikas race.

At 4:00 a.m. on Friday night I realized that morning running wasn't going to happen Saturday and I missed my family.  I did watch The Secret Lives of Bees and it kept me from being too lonely. Excellent movie and made me want to keep bees.  Its hard to be lonely especially when I miss my little fellas snuggling up with me.

To my surprise, on Saturday morning after sleeping in as late as I could before heading off to my first nuun sampling, I felt fantastic!  I had so much energy and was even chipper!   I decided then that I would run the 40k. I got that wild hair and was determined.  I would set the treadmill to 6.3 and just run for 4 hours and be done. Little did I know that TV on Saturday is total crap unlike on a weekday.

So I ate well all day and as soon as I got to my hotel Saturday evening I changed my clothes and gathered up my Treks, a handheld, some nuun, altoids peppermints (for upset stomach), my book on CD just in case, 2 bananas, 2 Chocolate #9s, and 2 protein bars.

Here I am ready to roll. 

  

  I started the clock at 8:20 p.m. and finished at 12:53 a.m.  I figured that since I just felt like running that I should just go until I felt like stopping and that ended up being 26.2 miles!   I have been torn up about having signed up for the Des Moines marathon in October and then having so much work come my way on top of anemia that I would not be able to get my long runs in.   

Guess what came on the tube while I was running.......Yep, it was Forrest Gump!  He just felt like running and so did I.  I thought for sure that running a marathon would make sleeping easier and keep the loneliness at bay but no such luck.  I was still up until after 3.

Some highlights of my run.  It was on a treadmill for 4 hours and 33 minutes so really, how juicy can it be but heres the skinny anyways.

• I was kind of an idiot and did't do a km to mile conversion so I thought I would just wing it and do 25 to be safe.
• I still have not done the conversion.
• when you get to 25 miles, whats really the big deal about 1.2 more.  
• those 1.2 miles were my fastest at the 6.8 mph.  I REALLY wanted to be done.  Mostly so I could shut the stupid TV off.
• I always have to use the loo at about 3 miles.   I calculated that I spent about 13 minutes either walking, which was 3 times for 1 minute each, or running back and forth to my room to use the loo or get more food.
• I only almost fell off once.
• I can eat a huge amount of food when running.  I guess I was pretty bored after a while.
• I was really afraid of choking so I concentrated on chewing carefully. Not so easy when allergies have your nose plugged up.
• I started out at 6.3 mph and kept that up for the first 20 miles.
• Its much easier to keep a good pace on the treadmill.
• I brought my VFF and kept thinking that I would have to put them on about half way through but my feet never were uncomfortable.  
• Now I know I can run a barefoot marathon.  If the Des Moines marathon doesn't happen it wont be so bad.  
• Now I think I will do just fine working and running the marathon.  I did it this weekend so I can do it in October.  
• I talked to Jaymon on the phone for a while.  
• I tried to take pictures of my treadmill settings but the flash washed the first one out and then the treadmill shut off at 100 minutes. twice.
• I accidentally pulled the emergency plug that wiped out my time which I saw before I did it so its cool.
• Don't the people that  make treadmills think that some runners will run more than a 100 minutes.
• I thought my bloggie buddies and especially Erika for her Birthday month!
• There should be a medal for barefoot treadmill marathons.

The picture above and to the right is me after finishing my 4 hour and 33 minute run.  I was a bit less chipper but have felt great since then.   My digestion is a bit slow and I am kind of swollen but not like my first over 20 mile run.  Its getting better and I am getting stronger.

Jaymon and I just got back from running 3 miles of hills in the cemetery and I feel like all the kinks have been worked out.

I am still stoked thinking that I just ran that far barefoot.  I find that running on the treadmill is just as hard on my feet as road running so this was great that I did it all bare and didn't ever have to put on my VFF.

So now back to regular life for the week and then off again on more nuun adventures.  This time its Cedar Rapids Iowa for the New Bohemian Half Marathon!   I am working on so many blog posts and feel really behind on my blog correspondence but I will get caught up.  

Happy Running my friends!