Running past a wall

I am 13 days away from my second half marathon. My first half marathon was ok, but the last 2 1/2 miles were pretty torturous, as I was suffering from severe calf cramping and had to stop-stretch-walk-run-stop-stretch-walk-run the entire way. It was a bitter struggle to even just run across the finish line. Because of those last couple of miles I finished more than 10 minutes slower than I wanted. I was very disappointed, although I was proud to just finish.

Based on that experience -- which was the first time I ever ran as far as 13 miles, I might add -- I've come to accept that there is a mental barrier for me when it comes to running over 10 miles. I don't know what it is, but anything over 10 miles just messes with my mind.

I'm taking a little different training tact for this upcoming half. My longest training run is 12 miles, as opposed to the longest run before my first half being 10 miles. Yesterday was 11 miles. And that distance played with my head. In fact, as I headed out the door I said to myself, "here goes nothing," and went on my way.

Curiously, I think the run went really well. Miles 5-8 were pretty much all uphill, including a 1.5 mile long incline at a 4.5% grade, but where a similar stretch during an 8 mile run in training for my first half almost broke my spirit, this one invigorated me.

When it was over my muscles were a little tweaked as I stretched, but today there's no soreness and no real sign in my body that I put 11 miles on a pair of shoes yesterday. That leaves me cautiously optimistic that my half in a couple weeks is going to end much better than my first one, but I'm trying hard to not get too confident because 13.1 miles is really far when you think about it, and anything can happen.

But if I get close to my goal time in Frederick (1:50:00) I'm going to be really, really happy. After yesterday I'm a little less afraid to think it might be a possibility.