My First Twenty

   First I have to say that when my alarm went off at 3:15 AM, I didn't want to get out of bed... I know I've said that before but I was seriously tired and the thought of running 20 miles made me feel even more exhausted. I got up anyways, drank coffee and water and tried to get myself all worked up for it as I got dressed.
  I didn't take my mp3 this time, and let me tell you I don't know if it had any effect on me or not. I freaked myself out during the first hour which was still dark and along some dark roads, but luckily everything turned out alright. I had my 2L hydration reservoir and I had put a lot of ice in it to keep it cold for as long as possible (it started warming up around mile 14).
  It was 75 degrees, 89% humidity and a dew point of 73 so it wasn't too awesome that is for sure - I toughed it out anyways and this time I included walk-breaks when necessary after mile 8 and a lot between mile 14 and 18. I consumed one Chocolate Outrage at mile 8 and at mile 14 I tried the Chocolate Raspberry Roctane which was a little bitter, but not bad.
  It was bloody freaking tough man, my legs were sore and tired and by mile 13 my quads were screaming for a merciful death while my toes and feet in agreement. I have to say this was the toughest run to date, and in the past I hated the idea of walk-breaks so I would normally stop for a minute or two but this time I was determined to keep moving no matter what.
  I did my best to not think about miles until mile 10, then I still tried to ignore it until mile 12 where I began to slowly count down each mile and was very happy when I reached mile 15 because I only had 5 more miles to go but by mile 17 I was ecstatic to know I only had 3. When I reached mile 18, I was crossing another milestone and that final step making 20 miles was pure joy (joy to be freaking done lol).
  I ran 20 miles in 3:33:31 with an average pace of 10:40 min/mile and an elevation gain of 291 feet, loss of 296 feet. I am only posting the splits for documentation purposes lol.
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 11:33
Mile 2 - 10:46
Mile 3 - 10:30
Mile 4 - 10:08
Mile 5 - 10:09
Mile 6 - 10:22
Mile 7 - 10:07
Mile 8 - 10:03
Mile 9 - 10:54
Mile 10 - 10:00
Mile 11 - 10:10
Mile 12 - 9:59
Mile 13 - 11:21
Mile 14 - 9:50
Mile 15 - 12:13
Mile 16 - 13:23
Mile 17 - 11:01
Mile 18 - 11:21
Mile 19 - 9:33
Mile 20 - 10:07

   Well, there you have it - my first 20 miler and it went pretty well for being so humid and crap and on tired legs. And that gives me 45 miles for week 9, a bit of a jump from week 7 (39) and week 8 (34) but next week I am going to try and cut it down to 40-42 and a LR of 14 to give my body a little rest for doing such a great job this week.