My first 24-mile training run ever. Did the first 12 on the RT with Kenny and Robert, both of whom are tapering for races coming up before mine. Finished 12.04 with them in 1:56, then set off on my own for another 12. Decided to get a change of scenery and went across the river to basically run the LRM half-marathon course, with a couple of tweaks. As I had hoped, the solo portion went a little faster than running the RT with the guys did; I had about a six-minute negative split, despite having to stop several times for traffic as downtown got semi-busy on this beautiful Saturday morning. Lopped a little extra to Main Street, back to the Broadway Bridge, then back down Riverfront to where I was parked at the boathouse, and the mileage was just about perfect -- 24.01. I have become an absolute believer in Oxysox compression socks in less than two weeks. No blisters and no calf issues in 24 miles with some considerable hills today. Same thing last weekend at Hogeye. I promise you I'll be wearing them at Newport -- and on the plane coming home from Oregon. Weather today was just about perfect -- mid-40s at the start, little hint of a breeze to keep the sweat out of my eyes, but not enough that running into it was any kind of chore, clear sky. If it's like this 49 days from today in Oregon, I will be quite pleased. 49 days. Seven weeks. Definitely on the home stretch of my training. People are wowed that I'm going to make a serious BQ attempt. They see BQ as unattainable. I don't know about that. I'm no great athlete, no speedburner. I've just worked my butt, and spare tire, and a few other things off for the past 21 months to get to this point. If I can, with my post-op back and high-stress job, I think many people could that don't think they can. I'm a little more obsessed than most, maybe even too obsessed. You could probably get there without quite my level of OCD. | 