I really didn't expect this week to go well, I was really losing hope and ready to give up. I wanted, NEEDED to reach 18 miles.... my first (and last) 18 miler was on December 20 - like 5 weeks ago.
I fought the desire to stay in bed, I was making excuses - telling myself I could get the 18 in later that day or something. I finally got my butt up 5:30 AM..... or something like that. I got out the door at like 6:12 AM, in shorts and a t-shirt, and the new pair of shoes to try them again. It was 57 degrees out, which felt amazing... except for the minor annoyance of wind ------ 15 mph SSW winds, yeah it sucked.
During the run, I was expecting a phone call from Cameron at any moment... and contemplating or far I could make it before his phone call, trying to figure out if I would have to beg my mom to watch him this evening and for how long it would have to be..... and worrying if she would even be able to...
My feet... or left foot had some minor issues but not awful... I had to mess with my shoe strings quite a bit and just kept messing with them during the first 5 miles, after around mile 7 or 8 the issues ceased.
Oh the anticipation, did I manage to get a good run in or not? This was a pretty screwed up route that I made, on the spot without any planning. At mile 8.2 I decided to take a road I'd never taken before which turned out to be really short and put me on a back road that was all rocks which is quite annoying to be honest. It was a flood zone, and although the rocks were annoying it was actually a pretty pleasant road.
I was happy when I reached mile 10, then I had to do some overlapping between miles 11 and 12... I freaking hate overlapping but sometimes it is a necessary monster.
I was happy when I reached the teens at mile 13, and ecstatic when I reached mile 15. I was expected some sort of pain or aching but the only soreness was my feet and that is to be expected after so many miles. By mile 15 I realized I was going to overshoot 18 miles.... but wasn't sure how much.
And so I ended up running 19 miles instead of 18, in 2:54:38 with an average pace of 9:11 min/mile. An elevation gain of 313 feet and a loss of 315 , with a lot of the hills during the first 5 miles (suckfest).
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 10:34
Mile 2 - 10:07
Mile 3 - 9:47
Mile 4 - 9:45
Mile 5 - 9:29
Mile 6 - 9:33
Mile 7 - 9:08
Mile 8 - 8:54
Mile 9 - 9:08
Mile 10 - 9:12
Mile 11 - 8:51
Mile 12 - 8:46
Mile 13 - 8:49
Mile 14 - 8:53
Mile 15 - 8:57
Mile 16 - 8:37
Mile 17 - 8:44
Mile 18 - 8:34
Mile 19 - 8:48
So there you have it, after what feels like an eternity (but really jut 3-4 weeks), I finally have finished out a great week.... and I can honestly say I feel I could've ran 26.2 miles this morning, I wanted to get to 20 but felt I was already pushing it (Cameron's patience). But I got home and they were in the recliner together and Dorian was actually starting to fall asleep.... until I got in the door.
A great week that brought me to 56.4 miles and 188.4 miles for January. Not the 200 miles I wanted but still a hell of a lot better than January 2015 (only 63 miles). Hopefully this is a good sign for 2016.
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