9 miles down

I'm training for the Robie Creek 1/2 marathon and this morning was a long run of 9 miles. Definitely rocked this run, but my oh my, all I could think of while I was driving home was 'how am I ever going to run uphill for 8 miles?'

This is where we started today, it's a little parking area probably close to 3 miles into the Robie course. You run up the road and it turns into a really pretty little canyon with a stream and lots of trees. The Robie course is (I hear) approximately 8 miles uphill, then 4 downhill, and 1 final flat mile. It's billed as the toughest 1/2 in the Northwest. Whatev. I eat tough for breakfast right?

Ha.

I'm training with a group from work, and so far our long runs have progressed from 4 miles of hills to 9 miles of hills and all but 1 run have been out and back runs - so we essentially run the first half of the distance uphill and the second half downhill. This is all good and fine, except like I said, today I was driving home trying to figure out how the heck I could run 8 miles uphill. Today was the longest I've done and that was 4.5 up, 4.5 down. Barely half of the uphill distance of Robie!

Sigh.

However, if there is one thing I have learned from running, it is to not think too far ahead (which I have obviously been doing). It is way easier to break 9 miles down into 1 mile chunks. I can wrap my head around getting 1 mile done. And honestly? Today I broke it down into 4 minute chunks on the uphill. Just run (or shuffle) 4 minutes, then walk 1. Run 4 more. So much easier than the other narration in my head of "ohmygoshiamsotiredandit'sonlybeenhalfamilesofariamnevergoingtomakeitwhatwasithinking!"

So. I guess I won't think about 8 miles of uphill anymore. I did 4.5 of uphill today and next week I'll probably do 5 - 5.5 of uphill. And the week after that, and the week after that.....

(Tired, but DONE!)

Right now I am icing my knees and looking forward to a sunny Saturday spent cleaning up my garden and starting seeds indoors. Yay for spring!