20 miles and an ice BATH challenge

I'm not going to lie, I have been dreading this week (and weeks 19 and 21) ever since I started training.  They all start with 10 miles on Tuesday and end with a 20 mile run on Saturday.  I know I can do it, but this week has stressed me out more and more the warmer it gets.  All week it was looking like a low temp on Friday night of 75 degrees. That is just awful, painful, horrible.  Friday night the weather looked like this:

Not acceptable.  NOAA was saying the low was going to be 73 with almost no cloud cover, so not the optimal conditions for a 20 mile run.

So hot

And then things got worse on Thursday night when I was about to go to bed and noticed the thermostat was set for 79 but the house was 83. Nick went outside and got the HVAC going but it still wasn't blowing cold air.  This really stressed me out.  If we couldn't get it fixed before Friday night how was I going to get a good nights rest before my big run? First world problems I know but I will abandoned ship and go stay somewhere else if needed.

Luckily Nick didn't have to work on Friday so he called an HVAC guy and he was able to come by at 1 pm.  Nick texted me shortly afterwards.  Our conversation went something like this:

Nick:  AC is #$@*ed.  Going o be a week or so

Me: Are you #$@*ing kidding me?

Let me mention here that Nick has a history of messing with me when it comes to things like this but I didn't want to assume he was and then be seriously let down if he wasn't.  So when I don't get a response within 5 seconds I call him and he doesn't answer.  Then I text him more (because this will make him respond faster).  

Me: Answer my #$@*ing call

Me: I never know if you are messing with me or not

Me: ASDF

Me: HELLO?????!!!!

Finally over an hour later:

Nick: It's totally fixed and blowing cold air. Temp slowly coming down.

Me: I hate you

Nick: lololol you always fall for it

So AC was fixed, now back to my original stress: having to run when it is warm out.  I decided to change up my route so on my first loop (the longest) with Endo we would be going by the in-law's house at mile 7.  I could get cold water and ice, use the bathroom, and leave the dog if I felt it was too warm.  I can do this!  Now off to bed.

To bed at 8:30 pm and up at 4:15 makes for a boring Robyn.

I slept like crap and ended up getting out of bed at 4 am.  The first thing I did was check the weather.

Maybe this is Nick playing another joke on me?

Part 1

Alright so not the best weather conditions, but what are you going to do?  The second I walked out the door it was like warmth and moisture giving me a big hug.  It was awful.  Endo was totally psyched though, so there's that.  I try not to think about the fact that I am running 20 miles and just try and focus on the distance of the loop I am running.  So the first loop was 13 miles so at 6.5 miles I am thinking "half way there."  I went back to THE park for the first time since I spotted Wile E. Coyote and ended up seeing the bunny rabbit.  I guess he wasn't eaten after all!  

The stop at the in-laws house was key.  I filled up my bottle with ice and water (it all melted before I finished the next 6 miles), Endo got to drink some water, and then we were off again.  Around mile 9 we got to the see the beginnings of the sun rising.

At this point I was feeling great.  The first half of the run was going by quickly.  The problem is, when you start thinking that is when it starts to not be good.  The fatigue started to set in, but all you can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other.


Part 2

My second loop with Charlie was 4 miles.  Only 4 miles, I can do this!  The sun was out now and things were really starting to heat up.  Running in the sun was horrible.  Luckily a majority of my route was in the shade.  Charlie was peeing on every other tree and generally dragging ass but I didn't really mind since my legs were screaming for help.


Part 3

The last lap was 3 miles and it felt like death.  I could not wait for this run to be over, but Endo was still psyched on running so she came with me.  I really had to channel Jens Voigt to get this last bit done.

I ended up completing the run I have been nervous about since week 1: 20 miles in Atlanta in August (on the hottest day I have run).  Two more 20 milers to go!

So you can see that I am training hard for the Chicago Marathon: over 500 miles of running over 24 weeks just to run 26.2 miles.  All of this is to raise money for Team Paws Chicago.  You would think with all of this effort I should be raising a lot of money, right?  I mean look at how much ALSA has raised from people dumping water and ice on their heads:

Hmmm.  Well I am really happy for ALSA, but what I have raised isn't even a drop in the bucket compared to that.  I guess having a gimmick that everyone grabs on to goes a long way.  I had one gimmick, sponsoring me for a mile, but that wasn't enough.  I need more.  But wait, I already to something way worse than the ice bucket challenge: I take ice baths after my longs runs.  This isn't a few seconds of ice cold water on you, this is sitting in a bathtub filled with ice water for ten minutes.

 You can watch ME suffer and then give money to help save the puppies and kitties!  It is a win win situation for everyone!  I filmed the entire ice bath just to prove that I did sit in it for 10 minutes (actually 11 minutes).  Enjoy!

Sorry I'm not more lively and entertaining in the video, 20 miles takes it out of me.