A Good Long Run

This morning Laura and I did an 11 mile run in preparation for the Race For The Land trail half marathon on June 5th. Originally I wasn’t sure I was going to do this half. I was maybe going to do it or do the 8k that goes along with it. The reason being I had originally thought I wanted to do the Paris Mountain 15k trail race in Greenville, SC the weekend before. Paris Mountain trail races are notoriously tough. They start off with a long climb to the top of the mountain and end with a fun descent down it with lots of switchbacks. I decided with the temps starting to rise, my lower back giving me trouble, and the fun I’ve been having on my long runs with Laura and Meredith that the half marathon just sounds like more fun. No need to feel like racing, just enjoy the nature preserve and some good company for 13.1 miles.

So back to our run. Since we had to do our run on a week day we weren’t able to meet until after 9:00 am. I spent the week worrying about the temps but was pleasantly surprised with somewhat mild morning temps around 60-65 and overcast, it would have been perfect had it not been for the humidity, but hey we live in the south what else would I expect? The weather teased us with some very short drizzles that never satisfied us.

As usual the conversation was great. It was nice to run without having to look at a map and made the run mentally more easy for me which in turn translated to a physically more easy run. The run was an out and back, which can sound tedious but the turn around at half way is always sweet. Woot, half way home! I have to say I never had any serious rough spots today. There were even times I felt the urge to go faster but thought better of it since I knew I still had plenty of miles to go and didn’t want to empty the tank too early. During the last mile I caught a second wind and really felt like going longer but I knew my partner in trail running shenanigans was not holding up as well as I. So when Laura’s Garmin announced the end of mile 11 we called it a day.

On our walk back in we indulged in mother nature’s version of an ice bath. Aaaahhh… sweet relief on the feet.

Giving my IT band and calves some icy love.

I could have stayed in that stream all day but sadly we had to get home and back to real life. Even more tragic I didn’t get a post run chocolate milk. With being on a time crunch I was worried I didn’t have time to stop at a store and pick some up before the hubby needed to get back to work. He had picked our spawn up from preschool for me thank goodness because I would never had made it there unless I had skipped the wading in the stream and that just wasn’t an option. So today not only am I grateful for awesome running partners and solid legs, but I’m so grateful for having a hubby that works from home and is willing to help me out with small details from time to time.