20 miles

I never in my life thought I'd be able to say or type that words, "I ran 20 miles today." But I did, along with SuperAthlete J. Even better, I didn't take a single walk break on the many hills along our route. That meant I had to disregard what my heart rate was doing -- and it may have led to the dizziness and nausea I felt for the last several miles of the run -- but I really wanted to see if it was possible for me to get through the entire distance without slowing to a walk. (We did, however, take several breaks to eat, drink water and go to the bathroom. Our longest break came at mile 17, when we made a pit stop at SAJ's house to change our sodden clothes, then headed directly back out into the rain -- which had started up around mile 8 and accompanied us fairly consistently for the remainder of the run.)

I just got the best email from SAJ, so wonderful that I'm just going to copy and paste it right here:

Take that big gulp and say yes we did! Congratulations on a steadfast run that in all opinion was my best 20 I have ever run. It was brilliant and now it seems harder we stopped than to have kept going....I am walking very slowly around the house! Remember lots of fluids to recover and some arnica here and there won't go a miss. Good job Anna, Love J.

Seattle Marathon, here I come!