Friday, October 17, 2014

18 With Friends

Last night, before I went to bed, I casually mentioned I had an 18 mile run on tap for this morning. pointonemiles saw and said he wanted to join in the fun. Then RunEMZ said she wanted to run with us as well. scgiancasp said she had 16 miles on the schedule, but I talked her into throwing in an extra two (#AllTheCoolKidsAreDoingIt)! Quickly word spread and a hashtag was created - #18withfriends.

So this morning I went out on a virtual 18 mile run with friends. Don't get confused, I physically ran all 18 miles, nothing virtual about that, but I "virtually" ran with friends. pointonemiles running in Texas, RunEMZ running in Arizona, scgiancasp running in Oregon, me running in SoCal and the list just kept on growing (and continues to grow!).

My weather app said it would be cool and cloudy, so I decided to leave my hydration and sunnies at home... BIG MISTAKE...

LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!

I realized when I started running it was an extremely humid one. There are two major traffic lights I have to cross within my first 2 miles. I knew it would be a soggy run when I stopped at the first one and the faucets of sweat turned on... YUM!

Thankfully my turn around stop was at a local park, which had a drinking fountain. I decided I would grab a quick drink, take 5 of my PROBAR Bolt energy chews, and post a selfie to Twitter so everyone could join along with me in the process.



The next 6 miles were great. I felt like things were "clicking". Not that I was going fast (I was averaging around 9:30/mile the whole run), but I wasn't having any funny aches and it seemed pretty effortless to stay at a consistent pace. Oh yeah, and I was running with my back to the sun which was now out in full effect :)

Around mile 14 I hit my next stop - another drinking fountain. I got some water (was a bit more parched than I would have liked to be at this point), took 5 more PROBAR Bolt energy chews, and posted another picture to Twitter of my view (the Pacific Ocean, not too shabby).

Rough to get made at a run when you've got this to look at!

You know I gotta #KeepItTight with PRO Compression
socks on my long runs! My new BOOM socks came in
the mail yesterday - just in time to try them out!

The last few miles were a bit rough. I was getting hungry, extra sweaty (and salty from the sea air), and a bit thirsty. Want to know what help me going?! Knowing I had friends running around the country at the same time as me. It was the virtual push I needed. Sure, I may have been running on my own, but I definitely wasn't alone!



Don't laugh... I'm still trying to get the hang of where to look
when taking a selfie on my phone ;)

The running community ROCKS MY SOCKS!! We would LOVE for you to join in on the virtual fun! Run where you can, when you can, and how far you can. Use the hashtag #18withfriends and HAVE A BLAST! I know that StuftMama and PavementRunner are planning on getting their miles in tomorrow, while others are breaking the mileage up over the weekend for 18 miles total. RUN WITH US!! 

Are you planning on doing #18withfriends?! 

1 comment:

Kelly said...

Love the hashtag! Shows how much the running community love to support each other even on social media! Great job - you killed it! Maybe I'll join in...