Totally spur of the moment decision to go long. Jenny's friend
Jamie was planning on 18-20 and I figured why not go along. The weather
was great. We took it easy and literally kept it conversational the
whole way. I looked at the pace about 3 times - 9:27 avg in the first
few miles, 9:21 at the turn around, and 9:16 overall at the end. Almost
forgot to turn around after going out 10 miles which is why we ended
with 21 miles. Hopefully Jamie feels ready for NYC marathon now.
As far as time on my feet goes, this was possibly my longest training run, even though it was more of a "fun run" than actually training for anything.
We saw two deer while in Starkey park just as it was getting light out. We also saw lots of people we know including Tatoo Mike, Andrea, David J, Elizabeth and Carin and many other people.
21.01
mi
03:15
09:16 pace
This run was probably one of the most enjoyable long runs I've had. The pace was not fast but it was not that slow either. Everything about it was perfect, despite the fact that I was awake between just after 12:00 and 3:30 last night. I had fallen asleep ok at first, then just after midnight heard steps upstairs. Very fast steps but kind of light, too. I went up stairs to check on the boys who were fine and nothing seemed out of place. As I thought about it, I realized that it must have been a squirrel scampering across the roof. After that I was in and out of bed. I read another chapter in Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets , checked the weather on the computer for the morning, as well as my email, got a drink of water and all that stuff. I eventually managed to get back to sleep and woke 5 minutes before the alarm clock.
I also had time to contemplate various things, both running and non-running related. I thought about the time off that I had to take from running and whether I define how I run or if my running was defining me. In the end I decided that no matter what the truth was from now on I would define my running and I would use it as a tool. I also thought about how I finally have the stronger core (although could use more work) that I vowed to get 4 years ago but somehow never found the time to do. There's lots of things like that.
The next morning I found out it wasn't really a squirrel but my oldest
son said he had to take a quick trip to the bathroom and stumbled over
some things while in the dark - mystery solved!!
