Week 15: Mission Accomplished

First: What a crazy week it has been! Second: Remember the three challenges from my last blog? Challenge one was to survive a 2 hour Hip Hop Fitness class...check! Did it like a champ.

Next challenge: Going gluten free (GF)! I was SO SCARED because I don't like to make sacrifices with my dieting. The more research I did on eating GF, the less scary it became. I was amazed at how much I can eat (this is me trying hard to be positive). There are a lot of yummy things I will miss eating but it will be worth it. I haven't had my abdominal cramping in at least 4 days. It's been so awesome! I'll do a separate blog post on my GF experiences of the week.

Final challenge: My 20 mile run! My workouts this week were ok. My left hip started giving me crap again this week and I could definitely feel it during my runs. I just need to focus on some hip/core strengthening the next 3 weeks so I won't have to deal with it on race day (so glad I'm a PT and I know what I need to do to fix myself!). Back to my 20 miles...
It didn't go how I imagined it in my mind but I stayed positive and didn't let it get me down. I did a 10 mile loop twice. The first loop was great. I bought some running gels to try out and took one every few miles and also kept water with me. I wanted to see how my body responded to the gels since they are giving them out during the marathon. As I started loop #2,  I still felt fine. My hip and back started hurting around mile 14 or 15. I wanted to quit but knew I couldn't...mainly because I was still miles from home! After 15 miles, I started to do some occasional walking. I was totally pooped. As I approached my house to finish 19 miles, I called my husband to do the last mile with me. He was so awesome and didn't complain or hesitate to do it with me. I just knew I needed the support or I would have quit. On a funnier note, I have the memories of being bit in the butt by a random dog during mile 8 :)

I know that race day will be so different than my training. Something about all of the people there cheering for you. It just pumps me up! Although today could have been much better, I'm still so excited to do this race. I'm also excited that training gets easier from here on out. Next week's long run is only 12 miles...did I just say ONLY? Twelve sounds so much better than twenty :)