Mission Day 19

Today was Mission Day which is a day of remembrance and celebration for all Team In Training participants.  We all met in Denver to run the High Line Canal Trail. Once everyone arrived we were all handed balloons and moved into a circle.  Once in the circle the 2015 Initiative was read.  The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has set a goal of allowing patients to manage their illness and live long happy lives as well as curing forms of blood cancers so that no one else has to lose a loved one. They want to do all of this by the year 2015.  Amazing isn't it?  That's just a mere five years away.  They've done so much to advance to treatment and research that I have no doubt that they'll be able to accomplish it as long as we all keep supporting the cause.  After the reading was done we went around the circle to tell everyone our name and why we do TNT.

Deanna went first which made all of us tear up when she spoke about her brother, then Tawsha told everyone about her Nana, after Jianna I told everyone who I run for, my Grandpa Tom and my Uncle Ted.  There were a lot of tears this morning. One woman who couldn't have been much older than me, was already a widow. She lost her husband to lymphoma. Another woman about my age, just found out on February 1st that her husband was cancer free.  I cannot imagine learning that Josh had cancer or losing him. It would be awful.  Another woman spoke about losing her 10 month old daughter to leukemia and a man his wife.  Their strength amazes me.  At the end we celebrated Mighty Mason who I told you about in a previous post, who had his last treatment this past week and is officially cancer free.  Once Ashley read aloud all of the names of the friends and family members that we participate for, we released our balloons into the air.  It was an amazing and emotional morning.

Mighty Mason lead us to the trail and we started running.  I was running longer than any of the other runners thanks to my altered schedule so I knew I'd be running by myself most of the time.  Shortly after mile six I got to the final cheer station where I was warmly cheered on.  They told me I was the first person they'd seen. Here I was thinking I was in the back!  I ran out until I hit the 8 mile mark and turned back.  I headed back to the trail head. I was just finishing my final gel when I saw Deanna and a few other volunteers under an arch of balloons cheering me on.  It was great but I wasn't finished.  My goal was to run 20 today, but at mile 19 I was just burned out.  I was extremely thirsty ( my fuel belt was all out of water), hot and I felt bad because everyone was waiting on me.  So 19 miles it was. I felt pretty good the entire run. I keep a pace between 9:15-10 min/miles.  I felt strong and I'm feeling great about my chances of finished the marathon well under 5 hours...at least for now.  It was a beautiful trail!

Before getting into my car to head home I filled two trash bags with ice for my knees.  Fifty minutes later I was home, well iced. Josh was nice enough to run a cold bath for me. I made my green monster and headed up for an ice/epsom salt bath.  I was shivering even with my sweatshirt on in the bath, but I think my legs appreciated it. As of right now I am still feeling good. My legs are sore but I can bend easily. I'll probably ice at least one more time today before I roll out on my foam roller to release some of the muscle tension.

Time: 3:05:25   Distance: 19 miles  Avg. Pace: 9:45 min/mile

Now to be fair, I did stop my watch when I stopped and stretched. So that would probably add about 5-7 minutes to my overall time making my pace about 10:07 min/mile.  If I an keep that pace for the marathon I'd come in under 4.5 hours!  Which would just rock my world. 

P.S. My shoes arrived yesterday and they were amazing on my feet today!  No ankle pain!