"Sweet Sixteen"...it turns out it's not so sweet.

I knew this run was coming for a while. Each time I saw this 16 mile run on the schedule, I kept saying to myself, "I know the title of THAT blog post...Sweet Sixteen!" My runs have been overall extremely pleasant and encouraging, and I couldn't wait to report how sweet this 16 mile run was. But it turns out, sixteen miles weren't so sweet. :0(

Per my new usual, I wanted to mix things up again. I have grown tired of running in circles. I have been running my 3 mile loop around my neighborhood again and again to equal the distance needed, and on occasion, I have ran the 5 mile loop around Lake Miramar over and over again to accomplish the required distance. But this week, I wanted to map out a run that would be one solid loop.

I drove to a couple of locations earlier in the week that I thought FOR SURE were 8 miles away from my house so I could just run there, and then back. But as usual, I have ZERO perception of distance! Each time, I came up short. I thought the kids' dance studio was at least 8 miles away from our house, but it turns out it is just 4.5 miles away. And I thought running to Target was about 6 miles away, but it was just 3 miles away. I'm an idiot!

My friend (shout out to Katie!) told me about a cool website that you can map out your run, and then it will calculate the mileage, and graph the elevation for you...I was stoked!!! After a very shocking experience about realizing just how flippin' far 16 miles was, I organized a run that was a solid 16 mile loop from my home. The run took me to and through the city of Jamul. At the bottom of the web page, I noticed the elevation graph which reported a substantial 3 mile uphill climb. There were additional up (and then down) hills, but there was one very drastic climb.

Unfortunately for me, not only do I not comprehend distance, but I also have no understanding of elevation. When I look at a graph, I have no idea if that hill is equal to what I run around my neighborhood...or even at worse, something closer to what I ran when I ran up Mt. Helix a couple of weeks ago. I made a mental note to drive the course before I actually ran it on Saturday.

Except...I didn't make that happen. I let the week get away from me, and then next thing I knew it was Saturday morning, and I didn't do my "homework". :0( In my head I had no choice but to follow the route I had mapped out, and I just told myself that "the hill" would be nothing larger than anything I had conquered in the past.

I set out, and as usual, the first mile bit the big one...but what's new!? I just had to get warmed up. Which shouldn't have been too difficult...even though I had left my house before 8am, the morning sun was already making heat waves. Within 15 minutes, I took another mental note to start wearing sunscreen on my runs.

At about 1.5 miles in, I ran past my YMCA. That was kind of cool to run past the place that I usually get my workout from. I continued on Campo Rd and that was pretty much the last time I saw normal civilization for a whiiiiile.

I had made it up some inclines and I felt fairly strong. I past by 2 horse ranches, several dead rabbits, a couple of dead birds, a dead snake, 2 pennies, and then this sign that was set up outside a shabby house out in the country...



Despite it's crudeness, it gave me a good chuckle! :0)

At 4 miles in, I met my mountain. :0(

If I had driven the course first, I would like to think I would have been smart enough to devise a new route. The mountain was larger than my ability. It would be 3 miles up this monster. I told myself, "one foot in front of the other...JUST.DO.IT" And so I did. It was so incredibly difficult. It's by far the hardest thing I have ever physically done in my life.

Even though I am training with a few other friends/family I felt all alone that day. My friend Katie is running with a new running club, and their run this week was only 10 miles. Jenni completed 9 miles at the lake, and then decided to stop and do another 3 miles at the beach. And finally, my dad is still recovering from his aches and pains last week, and he wasn't attempting the run at all. Not only was no one running this mountain with me, but no one was even doing the distance I was doing. That was discouraging.

But I kept one foot in front of the other, I avoided the occasional car/truck flying around the mountainous corners, and eventually I made it to the top. But there was no cause for celebration, I was tired. And I knew, "What goes up, must come down."

In a normal situation, I embrace running down a slope after running up an incline for a bit. But this was not your normal little slope. This was a steep hill and I felt every step in my feet, my knees, and now my back.



Before I left my house, I told my husband to come looking for me if I wasn't back in 3 hours. Many times on this run I wanted to give up. I wanted to stop right in my tracks, sit down on the side of the road, and wave the (imaginary) white flag. But during my head trips, I realized that eventually 3 hours in time would pass...and at the end of those 3 hours, I could either be sitting on the side of the road defeated, or I could be sitting on my couch becuase I had made it home from a 16 mile run. I kept going.

Eventually, I made it to the bottom, and I could see the mountain behind me that I had just ran up...and then down...



I was wishing that that was the finish line. I had given it my all, and I was spent. But unfortunately, I was only 10 miles into my run...I had 6 more miles to go!!! Even though I wasn't technically lost (because I had written directions in my fuel belt), I felt lost. I have never driven these streets, so nothing looked familiar. There wasn't a 7/11 I had passed everyday, and the golf courses I was running by were foreign to me.



I missed the familiarity of my usual "loops". The completion of a loop meant that I had just 3 more to go, or 2 more to go, or...etc. This run was like a never ending nightmare. I kept going.

After more running, lol, I made it into "town" and things felt like home again. I stopped in at my local Jack in the Box to use the restroom, and to splash some cool water on my HOT face and shoulders.

I hit the streets again with 3 more miles to go. At this point, I knew where everything was, and the head trips started in again. I started contemplating taking a shortcut home. It was SOOO tempting. "The difficulty of the run certainly equaled 16 miles."..."It's too hot to be running in this weather."..."Your body has new aches, just stop."

2 young runners passed me in the street and said, "You are doing great!" How did they know!?

I told myself, that I couldn't do this run in vain. I didn't just run up and down a mountain to cheat myself out of saying, "I ran 16 miles today." I kept going. I texted my husband and let him know I was almost home.

Right before I ran through my doors, I looked at my phone and realized I had ran 16 miles in 3 hours and 5 minutes. Considering that I had ran 15 miles in 2 hours and 32 minutes last week, that was a HORRIBLE time! :0(

I ran through my doors defeated, and the first thing my husband (who had been cleaning the entire house while I was gone, and watching the kids) said to me was, "What took you so long?"

I burst into tears.

Rick: Oh. I guess that was the wrong thing to say. (HAHAHAHAHA!)

In the moment I had no idea how I would be able to run one more mile, let alone another 10 miles to complete a full (26.2 mile) marathon in just 50 days!

But in the last 36 hours I have reminded myself over and over that the marathon will NOT be like this terrain AT ALL! AND, even though I wanted to quit over 100 times during this run, I never did...I ran all 16 miles...and if I was psychotic enough to get through this run...I might just be psychotic enough to push myself through 26.2 miles come race day!!!

It didn't heal my aches and pains, but my celebratory lunch at our new Mexican food joint did help my mood a bit. :0)



"In your life you'll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team, but I didn't know it at fifteen."- Taylor Swift, "Fifteen"