Wow. I feel like I may have to amputate both my legs holy frick. I'm dead. I literally couldn't walk after I finished.
Play by play:
Got into the front right off the bat. ran the first mile in like 6:30 and I'm like "fetch, I haven't even ran a 6:30 in a training run the entirity of 2018." probably too fast, but my man Drake once said Yolo so I went with it. 3 miles were just under 21 and 10k was 42. I was just having a good ole time, but my legs started feeling it after the hill at mile 8.
I passed a ton of people up that hill. it was big. I felt a lot of lactic acid building in my quads though and knew I was probably going a bit too fast. I've only been running for 6 weeks, and 98% of that has been under 8 miles and slower than a 8:15 pace. My biggest drawback is my ego though, so I held a sub 7 pace until about mile 11. a big group came up behind me and I wanted to stay in front of them but the spirit whispered to me that it wasn't sustainable so I gave in and probably let 50 people pass me going through the first half.
Thankfully, I was saved by a clif energy shot with caffeine and hit a bit of a second wind. I took 3 miles to slowly eat it so my stomach wouldn't hurt, but that hit me and I dropped 3 or 4 6:30 miles back to back. Dope. I was back. I was hi-fiving kids, I was flexing at the spectators, I popped the shirt off, people were like "good work, you look great!" and I'm like "No you look great!" I was back.
I hit 20 miles at 2:20, maybe 2:21 but I felt like I was gonna die. last 6 were probably around 7:45 average. I don't think I hit an energy wall or ran out of glycogen per say (I carb loaded hard and my veins were flowing with at least .08% Gatorade), but my legs were finally spent. my form broke down, I sat down on my hips, hunched my shoulders, and slipped into heel striking. I felt like I was running on blocks of wood shaped like legs. If I'd tried to do a single squat, I'm confident that both legs would have snapped in half instantly. Nevertheless, I persevered. But my dreams of sub-3 disappeared, and slowly so did my dreams of sub-3:05. Church may be able to go sub 3, but I could not. I had everyone splash water at me as I ran passed, I let out a few mighty yells, but by mile 24, I was just praying for the finish line. I never stopped and I never walked, and by the end I even found it within me to sprint what I was sure was a 19.19 final 200 meters. However, after watching the video it surely was not and I looked like a 95 year old who got his walker taken away making a valiant speed walk to escape the retirement home. But I finished.
All in all, it was a great experience and I want to use it as a foundation to build faster times on. I'm not at all satisfied with a 3:09 but it's honestly way faster than I thought I was capable of. good job to everyone else who ran and shout out to my homies D. Todd Christofferson and Dieter F. Uchtdorf for throwing down some fire talks today. if you don't know what I'm talking about, go to lds.org and look at general conference if you're into living a happier, more fulfilling life and such. peace.
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