20 miles?

Today was my longest run as part of my training for the Miami Marathon. I was supposed to run 20 miles, but I was only able to run 18.6 ... and it was a bit of a miracle that I even made it to that point. As I was about to hit 10 miles my left leg started to cramp, which has never happened before - especially at that distance. At the time I was running on a flat surface, so it is not like I stepped on something and twisted anything. It just came completely out of the blue. I attempted to stretch and keep walking, but it didn't go away. I was barely able to walk. I thought I would have no choice but to call Lionel to ask him to come pick me up, but the thought of it was so depressing that I decided to keep walking and stretching, in the hopes that it would go away. For the next two miles I kept running for a few seconds, and walking as soon as I felt like the pain was coming back. I then made it to our gym where I filled my camel backpack with more water, used the restrooms, and did some deep stretching for several minutes. I debated whether to just stay there and try to run on the treadmill, or call Lionel to come pick me up. But I still didn't want to give up. Unlike last week this time around I didn't feel tired, so I had to think that I could give some more.

I ended up going back out there, and was able to run pretty much non-stop until the 18 mile. But shortly thereafter the pain came back, and this time around it was here to stay.  So after 18.6 miles, I had to walk the rest of the way.  It literally took me 20 minutes to walk that last mile, because at that point I felt like I literally had to drag my left leg. And since I was running on a biking/running path, it is not like Lionel could come get me there.

As I kept walking slowly, trying not to cry because of the pain, I ran into a lot of walkers - mostly way older than me - that were coming in the opposite direction. They looked happy, and certainly were moving way faster than me. I kept wondering what they thought of me, since I was clearly dressed to run, but was no longer doing any of it. Did they think that I was unable to even get started? Did they think I was a total couch potato trying to convince myself that I could run for a little bit?

That last mile was definitely a painful one, both physically and emotionally. Even though I kept observing people, maybe they barely noticed me. But at the time I really wished I was wearing a shirt that read: "I just ran 18.6 miles. Give me a break". The thing is ... that message was probably not for them. It was probably from me to me.

For the next 3 weeks my runs will be much shorter as I prepare for the actual race on Feb 2. Let's just hope the cramps don't come back, especially when it counts the most. I've never expected that I will be able to run the full 26.2 miles, but I am certainly expecting to be able to run 18-20, and actually walk at a decent pace - NOT drag myself - the rest of the way.