30 miles / 5:17:50 / 10:35 avg. Left from my house just before 6:00 AM. Clear skies and 58 degrees. It was sunny by the time I finished and 78 degrees. Good LSD (long slow distance). I ran conservatively to insure I could cover the distance. I crossed the marathon in 4:37:12. About half the miles were on dirt road as I stuck to the west side of town and ran on the cattle road and on the trail in the bird refuge. I guess bird hunting started today as right around 7:30 AM hundreds of shotgun reports echoed throughout the wetlands to the south of where I was running.. I wonder who drew their weapons first, the "men" or the birds.

Before the run I ate half a banana and a slice of whole wheat bread. Also had a couple cups of coffee and some water. I had my hand held water bottle and a half gallon cached on the cattle rd. I got to the cache about 12 miles into the run. I refilled my bottle and continued out 3 miles then back and refilled my hand held again and finished off what was left in the half gallon bottle. At mile 25 I was able to refill my hand held at the mystery field track and that was plenty for the final 5 miles. I ate the first gu about an hour and a half into the run, then ate one every 45 minutes to an hour. I took in  600 calories total. S-caps every 45 minutes to an hour. I wish there were a way to have a clone run with me without ingesting gu's or s-caps just so I could see what difference, if any, they made. I didn't cramp up at all. I would say I bonked mildly the last 4 or 5 miles, but it wasn't very severe. I was able to keep moving. So, I don't know.

I mostly wanted to get this run in for the psychological boost of covering 30 miles, I didn't think about pace at all. Actually, I would say this is the strongest I have felt mentally during a long run. I think experience plays a big role. I knew what to expect and didn't freak out when I started feeling like I was tanking. I know these lulls come AND go during extended runs. Also, I've learned to be patient with the discomfort; it's there, it will persist, just run. With three weeks until the Goblin Valley 50k, this is my last long run. Though if I feel okay next Saturday or Sunday I may do 18-20 easy miles. 

I played little mind games to help get through the run. When I got to 5 miles I thought "I've covered 1/6th of the distance". When I got to 6 miles I considered "gee, I've covered 1/5th of the distance already". At 7.5 miles I assured myself that I had already run 1/4 of the distance and I only had to repeat what I'd just done 3 more times. Piece of cake. At 15 miles, well, yeah, halfway there! Then it was a matter of how much was left. Just beyond the 16th mile I was happy to report to me that I had less than 14 miles to go. I did this for every mile. At 22 miles I felt like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel as I had less than 8 miles. No problem. I run "easy 8's" all the time. But once I finished up mile 28, the last two miles I had yet to cover loomed quite large in my mind. I got through them. It was warm by the time I finished, I'm glad I didn't start any later this morning.

No issues whatsoever with the finicky left foot.

I sure like runnin'.

WET 65.5 miles