Yesterday’s post was drafted in a hurry while still glowing from the run and feeling pretty good about the running. Let’s have another look at it in the cold light of day. So the simple fact is, yesterday I ran/walked 4 miles further than I ever have before. That in itself was a win, a huge win. I slept well for about 2.5 hours after getting into bed – then I woke up again and the rest of the night was a bit hit and miss. I did spend some time thinking about what went well and what didn’t yesterday though:

The ‘need to do better’:

1. We didn’t fuel that well before the run – we weren’t sure if we were going for a long run, a short run, a run at all or exactly when. It wasn’t a disaster but we need to pay more attention to what we eat in the days running up to the big one! We should be fine for the meals  as we’ve made Disney Dining reservations already but it’s the inbetween snacky things
2. I wasn’t hydrated enough. I might have said before but I am really rubbish at drinking enough during the day. I wasn’t dehydrated but I wasn’t really properly hydrated either. This is worrying me. Maybe buying a silly disney water bottle and having it with me constantly will make me drink enough pre race. I need to be really hydrated pre race as I am also not great at drinking during – makes me feel queasy – keep messaging me saying ‘water!’
3. Warm up – what warm up. We walked down the hill… Need to do more here – might help keep niggles away for longer
4. The Garmin – hm. I usually love that watch. I like that it beeps and tells me when to run and I like even better when it beeps to tell me to walk. But yesterday it had a wobble, re-set itself at 8 miles and then with about 2 miles to go just started beeping every second and wouldn’t stop. It also stopped telling us when to run/walk with about 3 miles to go… need to look at what went on there.
5. Yoga afterwards – we did 10 minutes and that is great – but we should probably have done another session after our bath etc and before bed

The ‘oh my goodness, I might be able to do this’ bits:

1. 17 miles!
2. 17 miles within RunDisney pacing requirements!
3. No niggles, mentally or physically until mile 9
4. No real mental niggles until after half marathon distance and even they were very minor and kicked into touch with a couple of repeats of ‘We are totally awesome’
5. Half marathon time close to the personal best from the September half marathon race. Don’t know exactly what it was but it was around 3 hours
6. Fuel during race seemed to work for me – porridge bar and chocolate although the next long one will have to be done without chocolate  – chocolate and Florida is not a good combination and chocolate really didn’t work for Kath, she nearly puked.
7. I enjoyed being out. I can honestly say that until mile 16 and a bit I was enjoying myself. The walk up the hill was awful but that’s what you get for living up a hill. I’m holding on to the fact that next time I walk up it it will feel so much easier because I haven’t run/walked 16.5 miles to get to it!

So how do I feel today? Well I can feel in my legs that I ran further than I ever have before. My legs feel a little achey but nothing really hurts. Nothing is making me miserable and nothing feels like I should be worrying about it. I’m not running today (and because of my depression/anxiety issues at the moment I am actually a little scared of not running today!) but will keep doing 15 minutes of yoga here and there and stretch everything out properly. I might also finally get that foam roller out…