New Record!!!!

Sunday came, which meant one thing --LONG RUN!! I hadn't ran Friday or Saturday, so it couldn't be put off any longer. I looked at the schedule to see how long the run would be this week and almost cried - 9 miles!!! AH! I somehow skipped the 8 mile weekend (I have been slacking on my training unfortunately), but I decided to go for the 9 miles anyway. The furthest I had ran up to this point was 7 miles. I have been slowly trying to wear my arch support inserts to help with my knee pain, but they are still very uncomfortable so I didn't even try it for this run. I am on the hunt for some new shoes also! I was very nervous about this run, because lets face it, I just finished eating and drinking all weekend, I felt fat and out of shape. 

I was also terrified about the knee pain. It usually kicks in around mile 3 or 4, so I just knew I was in for it on this run. Thank God Craig was there to run with me or I never would have made it. I also decided I needed to pick a new trail. The trails I usually run on are very familiar now and I didn't want to psych myself out the whole time knowing how much further I had the whole way. We took it pretty slow the whole time, mainly because I was nervous about making it through the whole thing!

We mapped it out ahead of time, and since the trail only went 4.25 in the direction we were running, we would only run 8.5. I mentioned that if I felt good enough at the end we could stretch it out to make it 9, but of course that wasn't the case. My knees started throbbing about mile 3, as usual, and it just kept getting worse. The last 2 miles were pretty miserable, but I had gone so far, I had to finish! I could barely walk at the end it felt so bad, but I'm not mad that I did it! 8.5 miles is officially the furthest I have ever run in my life. Next weekend I'm up to a 10 mile run, so I guess the excitement for 8.5 will seem silly after that! We celebrated by having a picnic in the park and then having a summery drink on the patio at my parents house later that day. Oh, we also had some target practice with the BB guns with my dad. :) It was an amazing, busy, busy weekend!!