The Psychology of Running 20 Miles

< 1 mile: I feel great! This is going to be great! I'm keeping a pretty good pace. Maybe this won't take all day. I love running!

9 miles: I'm hungry. Almond butter when I'm halfway through.

10 miles: Yay almond butter! Yeah, I don't really want this, but I'm hungry, so I'm going to eat it anyway. I still feel great! Running is awesome!

12 miles: Okay, I'm feelin' it. But if I were running a half marathon right now, I would be passing people up hill, pushing myself to the limit. 13 miles is nothing!

13 miles: 13 miles is not nothing. But I've got this. Running 20 miles was never going to be easy.

15 miles: My legs hurt. My feet hurt. I'm going to run 5 more miles in pain. Yup. I'm going to do that.

17 miles: Can I stop yet? I want to stop. I could stop. I don't really have to do this. But I was going to post on Facebook that I ran 20 miles. I should run 20 miles. Then I can post about it on Facebook.

17.5 miles: I just need to think positive. My body is amazing! Look at me doing this hard thing! I can run forever! I could run forever if my legs didn't hurt so much. Stupid legs.

18 miles: More happy thoughts. The sky is so blue. The magnolia leaves are so green. The cool breeze tastes like cold water.

18.5 miles: I want a big glass of cold water, not the water from my plastic water bottles. I want to poop. I want to cry. I want to throw up. Nope, vomiting is not one of my running problems. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Maybe I'm going crazy from too much running.

19 miles: Can I stop yet? Can I stop yet? Can I stop yet?

20 miles: Hooray I can stop.

Cool down: Son of a b*** walking hurts, too. I'm totally posting about this on Facebook.