20 Miles & a visit from my Sister & Nephew

 My sister Val and her little baby Otto came for a visit since her maternity leave is almost over. I took Friday off and we had the opportunity to hang out all day and relax. We spent some time at Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan WI . . . . it's an amazing garden with interactive toys, books all over the place to read and many areas for little kids (or big kids like me) to explore. It's about 5 minutes from where we live, so I'm so sad to say this was my first visit in over a year! (Bad Mom!) I made sure to hydrate well while laying in the sun during Jackson's nap. Otto slept in a chair in the shade while we worked on our tans! (just like old times!) It was a nice visit and I was happy to have some time with my sis and her sweet little boy.




Gorgeous Day for a visit to the Bookworm Gardens with my little man!




Angie came to Sheboygan to run our 20 since my sister was visiting. We started shortly after 5 am. The weather was really nice, cool, low humidity, comfortable. About 2 miles in I noticed my back was soaking wet. The water bottles on our fuel belts are notorious for having leaky nipples. I pulled my back right water bottle out and sure enough, my bottle (unfortunately filled with Gatorade) had leaked ALL OVER MY BACK! I was pissed! Sticky and wet is not the way to be at mile 2 of 20. We stopped at a near by park at mile 3 to use the restroom quick and I wanted to just check out the gatorade damage & wipe down a bit. Pretty annoying, but I survived. I now have a pink stain on my fuel belt & panties! Oh well, it could have been worse!

Look at my back. . . only 3 miles in. . . . not sweating. . . . leaky bottle. . . . GATORADE!

~VERY MAD MOTHER RUNNER!~



You know it's a long run when your route takes an entire page of notes!



After our stop at mile 3-ish, we kept chugging along. Our run started on the same route we normally do for our long runs, but we've never done 20 in Sheboygan. We have only done our 20 by Angie which is out in the country. Needless to say, we had to do a few extra loop-de-loops to get 20 in! We made it to our 7 mile mark which is where we usually stop at a gas station, brag about how many miles we will be running, refill our gatorade and pee! Then, back on our way! From there, our route changed to get some extra mileage in. We stopped for a quick stretch break as my hamstrings were feeling very tight around mile 12 or 13. That was much needed and felt great.



One of a few stops for hydration refill!


I used to be opposed to stopping because I thought it was not "continued running" and I wasn't really running the whole time then. Now I know that when you are running 20, you need to stop when you feel the need to stretch or use the bathroom. Running for 3.5 hours is a long time and taking care of your body is so important. Running comfortable is more important than not stopping! I tried to put extra loops in the route towards the middle so that when we got closer to my house at the end, we could just be done and not have to do anything extra at the end when we just wanted to be done. That is a little mind over matter trick I learned over the years. Nobody wants to have to run past their house at mile 18 or 19. That would suck!

Normally I'm flapping my jaw the entire run. Poor Angie has to listen to me talk about everything from clipping my fingernails to the tediously boring details of my work day! She has to hear about potty training, cleaning my house, laundry, blah blah blah. . . . she really knows quite a bit about me! (Amaze-fest running buddy! -serioiusly!) This run was a little different. 20 miles is a LOT of running and if you have ever done it, you know you are tired at the end. The last 3 miles there was minimal conversation between Angie and myself. The last mile was mostly hard breathing, a few complaints about how awful we felt and just wanted to be done and some pure focus! We finished! It felt GREAT to be done! We always high-five when we complete a run. . . whether it's 5 miles, 10 miles or the full marathon! (it's a sweaty gross high-five, but it's just a ritual!)

The weather started out nice, but we were thankful we got an early start because it warmed up.

We don't always get the runner's high right when we're done as we're just too exhausted and all we want to do is pass out. I certainly wasn't feeling that runner's high yet when we first finished. We walked home (not far as I was pretty spot on with my route planning) and then we foam rolled, had our bananas and chocolate milk and called it a day. We had that done by 9:30 am! To me, that's all that needs to be done in a day, but as mothers of young children, there is no such thing as sitting on the couch the remainder of the day.

I ended up mowing my yard in my cute compression socks! I was hot, tired and dehydrated, but it needed to be done and I wanted to enjoy the back yard with the nice weather. I enjoyed a cat nap in the sun while Jackson napped and then played with Jackson the rest of tthe day. I had a hard time eating enough food to make up for my 20 mile run (sounds like a bad problem huh?), because I had terrible gut rot from the GU. I must have had enough active recovery because I felt great on Sunday. I certainly didn't feel like I ran 20 miles. I probably would have noticed some muscle fatigue had I actually done anything, but I rested and felt fine. I'm heading to my parents cabin with my little buddy for the weekend tonight so I'm excited to do my 12 miler with some new scenery. I'll miss my long run Saturday with Angie, but glad it's a 12 miler and not a 20 miler. We'll be logging another 20 miler the following weekend! Race day is quickly approaching so we are getting excited! 

Do you get excited to run in new places? Or are you a creature of habit and run the same route over & over & over & over?~Brooke~