It’s mile 22 Dorothy – you have four to go – this is how your legs feel at the end of a marathon. DEAD. You must push on. Push through the pain. Manage the pain. Make your body do what your mind wants it to.
*Snow* *Snow* and more *Snow* If you live on the right side you are probably worried about your runs this weekend. Some people were lucky enough to get to run their long runs this morning outside. I wasn’t one of them. My daughter has been sick for the past two days, which ruled out asking any friends to watch my kids so I could run. It’s snowing right now and by tomorrow morning there is expected to be a couple of feet of snow on the ground. This will make 20 miles impossible.
Yesterday afternoon I decided to attempt 20 on the ‘mill.
I did not look at the time on the clock or the mileage on the treadmill till I was sure I was getting close to 10 miles. I switched the display – 9.99. How’s that for intuition? I struggled through 6 more miles. Wanting to give up and try this again on Saturday. A voice in my head said to me – You do not give up Dorothy. It’s not in you to give up. Keep running. At 16 miles I paused the treadmill for a moment and gave myself a serious pep talk.
It’s mile 22 Dorothy – you have four to go – this is how your legs feel at the end of a marathon. DEAD. You must push on. Push through the pain. Manage the pain. Make your body do what your mind wants it to.
At mile 18 I began to feel excited. This was farther than I have ever run on the treadmill before. Despite being extremely tired – I pushed on and even sped up. When I hit 19 miles – I saw that finish line. I talked outloud to myself, never saying I was tired. I talked and talked and talked and said HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT DOROTHY? – soooo bad - The finish line is in sight – push it. I ended the last mile in the 6′s. When I finished, there was no medal, no crowd cheering for me. No one knew what I had just accomplished, except for one person. Me.
Runner, dreamer, marathoner x24, mommy of 3, Women's Running Magazine cover model, published writer, Saucony contributing blogger, running coach, and lover of all things running. I Run This Body. 
Way to go! That is awesome, at this point I can't imagine running 20 miles, much less on a treadmill, but I'm giving you mad props for that. Way to push yourself, a lot of people would have given up, you rock!
I think people say, "You are a rock star!" to freely so I don't use it often but today I'm thinkin'- you are a total rock star!!! Great job on such a tough mental run.
Way to go!!! I was so happy I could get my 13 in outside yesterday. Heck, I even went for a quick (or rather slow) 4 today since my husband took the day off. I assume I'll be treadmilling it for the rest of the weekend.
Wow! 20 on the TM? Wow!
TWENTY on the treadmill? Insane! Hardcore. Woah. Speechless.
I not only work part time, but I homeschool. Also, my hunabsd works late so I can’t run in the evening. Thus, if I want to run it has to be in the early morning before my hunabsd goes to work. I’m up at 5am most days. Except Sunday. Sunday is my it will take a nuclear bomb to drag me out of bed early day.I run outside Tues, Thurs and Sat. I reluctantly run on a treadmill MWF.I hate treadmills. Yeah, it means I can get an extra 3 runs in that I ordinarily wouldn’t be able to squeeze in but UGH they’re so BORING. Plus, they’re easier so you think you’re doing great and then you run outside and realize Oh my gosh!!!!! I’m slower than a turtle in peanut butter! It helps if you put the treadmill on an incline. Takes a bit more effort then.I bought the treadmill from a garage sale. It’s not a very good one. The display is dead. But it fulfills its function adequately.I keep trying to encourage my older son to run with me. He looks at me like I’m mental. So no joy there.The younger one is excited by running, but he’s only 4 so I have a few years of indoctrination to go before he’ll hit the trails with me. =)Long runs rock on Saturdays. I’ve only just started speedwork and I’m still not quite sure if I’m doing it right. Once I get it down I’ll start hills. No strength training yet.Stretching rocks! I generally do sort-of yoga moves. There’s nothing like a standard forward fold followed by a downward dog and a child’s pose after a long run. Whoot! Groaning softly as you stretch while telling yourself you’re awesome because you ran further than you thought you could works too.Keeley BrooksFranklin, TN
wowwowowowowowowow. you're amazing.
Seriously way to go! Like I've told you before I can barely manage 6 or 7 on the mill.