digging deep. like to china deep.

just call me the human hamster.

i did 18 miles on the treadmill. AFTER a 7 hour waitressing shift.

i'm totally serious. here's how it went down:

miles 1-9 were pretty good. i was a little tight in the beginning but by mile 3 my legs loosened up. you would think my legs would be nice and warm by then, but they were also tired. on one tv i watched a marathon of america's next top model. on another tv i watched fat camp on mtv. both were very motivating in keeping my ass in gear. thank god i couldn't hear any of it though because tyra banks makes me want to vomit. and not in the bulemic, i want to be a supermodel like her kind of way. but in the oh my god she is so freaking annoying kind of way.

once i hit the halfway mark, i was a little tired. not like pooped, but i wasn't excited to do a whole 9 more miles. but i plugged along anyway. mile 10 was a little harder. mile 11 sucked my ass. hard. i was like fuck this shit. fuck this marathon. fuck fuck fuck! i was really, really, really tired. my legs ached. my feet throbbed. and even though i was dead tired, i could feel my adrenaline rising with all my stressing. so i went into damage control mode. i clicked through my ipod to find a slow song to sing to.

i am embarrassed to say that "secret lovers" is what got me through my 11 mile freakout. i mean that song is just so freaking cheesy. i love the line, "in the middle of making love we notice the time..." i don't know if music videos had been invented when this song was out, because i certainly don't remember ever seeing a video for this, but if there was one, i can imagine what this particular scene would look like: candles, white billowing curtains, a man with a jheri curl and a woman with huge hair, tumbling in red satin sheets, they look up and *gasp* !!! the clock! such drama! the woman flees quickly putting on her shiny purple dress with the huge shoulder pads, her blue eye liner smearing across her face. jheri curl man runs to the window to watch as his sweetheart drives off...as they sing...to each other. hil-freakin-arious!

ahem. ok. moving on.

so since a slower paced song helped to calm me down, i tuned into my military cadence playlist. i turned the speed way down, like the slowest possible speed that can still be considered running (4.5 mph. yes i was actually still running at this speed). the rhythm of the chants and the footsteps in the background helped clear my mind so that i wasn't wasting energy on thinking. about anything. seriously. my mind has never been so blank. all i did was repeat the chants as they said them. that is the beauty of cadences.

so i got through to mile 16 this way. for a brief second i just wanted to roll off the treadmill and fall into a heap and sleep on the floor. in the middle of the gym.

2 more miles. just 2 more miles. i stopped and walked for a quarter mile. to just muster the strength to run. and then i ran. at mile 17, with only one mile left i knew i would make it. i even gave myself permission to walk the entire thing if i had to. again, i walked another quarter mile. then i clicked over to the rocky theme, and busted out the final three quarters.

18 miles, people. 18 miles.

i am way too tired to get together an ice bath for myself. so i might just soak my legs in cold water before switching to warm. the scary thing is i work tomorrow at 7 am.

if this marathon is about endurance, i think i've got what it takes.

splits:
1: 13:57
2: 12:57
3: 12:11
4: 12:13
5: 12:02
6: 11:57
7: 11:44
8: 12:24
9: 11:52
10: 12:20
11: 12:08
12: 14:57 (the mile of suckage)
13: 13:23
14: 14:00
15: 13:45
16: 13:17
17: 15:53
18: 14:34

T: 3:55:42
AVE PACE: 13:00 (slower than molasses, but what can i do?)