"Just run and jump"

This morning I headed out for my second to last really long run, before the marathon. 19 miles were on the menu. Since Homebody and I spent so much time ziplining yesterday as a celebration of our 10th wedding anniversary, I didn't want to take up too much time driving anywhere for my run today, so he could return to his studies. Instead I decided on running three loops (just over 6 miles each) in the county park behind our house.
When I walked out the door I made up my mind that I would try to do the first approximately 14 miles, without stopping at all (not even a potty break. For those who don't know, I have been known for designing my runs around the best pit stops). A little bit of stretching and loosening up and off I went.
I like heading out early in the morning, especially when I run in this park. I calculated that starting at 6am would give me at least one complete loop, without having to face too many owners with their dogs off leash (yes, there are many signs around the park asking specifically that dogs be kept on a leash, but even a picture does not seem to help the blatantly ignorant, which seems to calculate in almost any dog owner you meet in the park).
I was lucky. For almost the first two rounds, I only came across two. Once little fellow jumped up my leg, while Ms. Owner yelled at the dog to come back. It is kind of amusing that people do that, because you know that the owners who yell the loudest are the ones that have the littlest control over their canines. I especially laugh inside, when the dog decides that I am going faster than their owner and that it would be much more fun to run alongside me than going with them.

When I reached my goal point of 14 miles, I decided that I had already made it this far without stopping and might as well make it the whole way. During the last round especially, I could feel myself hitting walls much quicker than before. From the very beginning I had found my mantra of the run (one that I think I would like to keep for the future). Yesterday during the zipline tour after the initial nerves of being a little afraid of heights had settled, I had done really well throughout the tour and gotten to totally enjoy zipping among trees. For most of the ziplines, you get prepared and just slowly sit down in your harness and go. Not so for the very last one. It is called the "Dual Racing zipline" and you race your partner on the zipline right next to you. You can gain speeds up to 45mph and are caught be a breaking system in the end rather than having to break yourself. For this zipline, you are asked to not slowly sit down in your harness and instead run down two steps, along the platform and jump as far out as possible. Homebody and I were the first ones to go and to my own surprise, I didn't hesitate at all. All the details of my thoughts weren't clear to me in that moment, but I remembered every second of it during my run today. Whenever I felt myself being hesitate about continuing during those 19 miles, I kept telling myself to "just run and jump". I remembered the moment, I left the platform and the thought of "wow, I really did it", before I was caught be the harness. As soon as the harness caught me and I started zipping along, all I could think about was how much fun it was. That's what I visualized during my run today as well.

It worked for the most part. When I really hit the wall, I pictured myself as a football player pushing the blocking sled across the field. Except mine was a wall. There was one point at about mile 17, where I was caught off guard. My brain suddenly screamed "STOP" and my body was still moving. I must have looked very funny, because I stumbled and caught myself and kept going. I stuffed a salt pretzel in my mouth and pushed forward until the feeling vanished and I just became amused by myself.

If I could have, I would have high-fived myself, when I reached the end. Instead I just ran and jumped.