Marathon-pace long run. 18 miles w/ 10 miles @ marathon race pace. 3:06 pm, 52-46°F, 30-48% humidity, wind 6 ENE. I can't believe I managed to get this run done despite the forces conspiring against me. I had to take my oldest son up to Greeley today to audition for the music department at the University of Northern Colorado. I think his audition went well and he had a nice time together. But that took a 7-hour chunk out of my day. I got dressed and went out for my run as soon as I could after we got home, but this run was so long that by the time I finished, the sun was setting and I was starting to get cold (I wore shorts and a short-sleeve top). Also, despite that I was running for 2 hours and 38 minutes, the run took 3 hours because I had to stop for lights a lot more than I do in the early mornings because of the increased traffic, I made a pit stop at a Walgreens, and my family kept calling me and I would have to stop to talk to them. My husband called when I had run 6 miles and asked if I was almost done. That was kind of disheartening. But the worst was when I had about 3 miles to go and I got 5 calls from home in 10 minutes. My poor son was the 5th caller (actually I think he was the 3rd and the 5th caller - he called twice) and I yelled at him because I was so frustrated at that point. I felt like I could get home and help them if they would ever stop calling me. I take my phone on runs so that I can make OUTGOING calls in an emergency, not to receive everyone's INCOMING call when they can't find their wallet or whatever. I ran around the 'hood rather than driving to the trail in order to save time. I can go lots of places in the 'hood in 18 miles. But I ran so that the route would have more uphill in the first half and more downhill in the 2nd half in order to make it a little easier to do the MP miles, but the last 2 miles were net uphill, which was tough. As it turned out the first half was also more into the wind. They say that you're supposed to do these MP long runs on a course that is similar to your race course. But the race course I'm training for is flat and at sea level. We don't have flat around here, let alone sea level. I'm glad just to have made it through this week. Next week is a recovery week.
AP: 8:47. Splits: 9:35, 9:31, 9:33, 9:25, 9:34, 9:43, 9:12, 8:58, 8:13, 8:17, 8:11, 8:09, 8:06, 8:22, 8:17, 8:25, 8:10, 8:26.
| 