“Holy crap, we just ran 14 miles.”

“Holy crap, we just ran 14 miles.” 

That would be my facebook status update on Saturday morning after running the farthest either of us have ever run.
…yes that would be a big ‘ol PDR baby. 

One  PDR in a series of many, many more to come. 

And I think that’s what really got me on Saturday: that we’re now in what I’d call ‘serious’ marathon training mode. The next few weeks are going to be so incredible. Both incredibly challenging, incredibly tiring, but also incredibly rewarding.

I’m finally at the point in marathon training where I’m embracing the sheer fact that Scott and I are embarking on something so very unique, so very ‘once-in-a-lifetime,’ so very incredible. We’re testing our bodies (and our minds) in ways very few people will ever be tested.
…and that’s something worth savoring, vs. rushing through.

(even though I can promise you my mind has gone to that “I can’t wait for this to be over” place more than once on Saturday)

So that’s what we did on Saturday. We both went into this 14 miler thinking about it as 2+ hours of uninterrupted ‘us” time. We might not have talked all that much in those 2+ hours, but we were ‘talking’ through running. Silently cheering eachother on, staying ‘in’ the moment, pushing around every loop, turn, hill and straightaway until we hit the final mile of our longest run to date.

And that’s when Scott said: “how does this feel? exhilarating, huh?”

He broke my concentration with those words but I’m glad that he did. His words forced me back into the moment, where that final mile would become round out our longest run, a run that I’m really damn proud of. I never went into that ‘panic’ place, I never felt like I couldn’t do it. I was tired, sure. My knees and hips started to ache a bit by the end, sure. But I felt good, all things considered. Damn good.

And that’s what I’d call a huge-ass confidence building run. The confidence we’ll both need to conquer 15 miles this week before we take it back to 12 or 13 miles for a bit of a ‘pull back’ week in training. And then it’s back up, up, up – 17 miles, 18 miles, 20 (!) miles, etc., etc., etc.

Whoa. 

…we’re really doing this thing, huh?? 
(I still can’t quite believe it…)