Twelve... is my training miles

I've been thinking all week about my long run of 12 miles for my half marathon training. It's more to condition my feet to last 13.2 miles this time around and not be in PAIN the last 3.2 miles of the race. 

How did I manage to stay focused on 12 miles of running? 

I broke down my run into 8 loops around my routes of 1.5 miles each loop. I usually do 4 loops which is 6 miles or close enough. I got to loop #5 and wasn't sure if I'd make it three more loops. My feet were hurting. This is what I did to make it through my training. It's not a race after all. I just wanted to complete 12 miles for the day. I took a few short rests for water and to stretch out my toes by wiggling them around. I think that did help. Plus, at mile 9 something I ate a small banana because I could tell my legs were feeling heavy, especially getting up those hills. Yes, I did not avoid the hills and run a flat route. My longest rest was probably 4 minutes when I ate that banana, stopped for a quick bathroom break, drank some water and headed back out to finish 2 more loops.  The dumb thing I did was to forget to start my GPS at mile 4. I am sure that I ran a mile before noticing my GPS was turned off. I had to do a little guessing at the miles but I'm sure it's close enough. So my GPS is off by exactly one mile. 

To keep from getting bored while I ran, I just look around, notice the flowers blooming, watch the cars go by, wave to neighbors and vary my running route. When I'm ready to quit I just think about the few loops I have left to run and that keeps me going because how hard is it to run 1.5 miles? Not very so I keep going and knowing I can stop at home for a quick rest and some water sure helps. I was a tiny bit tempted to just quit, but I wanted to make my goal of running 12 miles for today. 

Based on my splits (mile times) I probably should have refueled at mile 7, because after that my mile times went from a 10 some thing minute mile to 11 minute miles and back down again at mile 11 when that banana at mile 9 kicked in to refuel my legs. 
Next time I'll try my Dots candies through out my 12 miles in three weeks to see how that goes for staying fueled up! 

I get to put my feet up and enjoy the rest of my Saturday knowing I completed a BIG training running goal by 11am!