Fine Fifteen

Before I get into my post, I have to say that I'm hoping to get back to shooting some new Cooking With Yvie episodes this week. I apologize to you loyal readers/viewers for no new shows. The girls got sick and were sick for a while and that ruined a good Halloween show I'd planned on doing. I thought it would be nice to have the girls dress up in their uniforms and make a Halloween recipe. Anyway, I really will make it an effort to shoot a new show this week as Yvie and I both need to get back to that.

I just got back from my long run. We were scheduled to run 15 miles today, and that's what we did. Actually, it was 15.38 (I can't cheat myself out of those .38 miles, you know). I think this was officially my longest run ever. The last time I ran 15 miles, The Garmin gave out on me during Mile 5 so I wasn't able to properly record the distance that day. Today, though, The Garmin plowed right through to the end, just like I did.

Actually, The Garmin wasn't the only thing that wasn't up for 15 miles two weeks ago. I remember dragging through the last couple of miles and by the time we were done, I was done. I was spent, drained, exhausted. I remember collapsing on the grass out of sheer fatigue. But today was different. I felt strong, very strong. In fact, I felt so strong that I thought about getting in some extra mileage today but decided against it. See, next week I'll be up in Seattle and I have to crank out an 18-miler that day as part of my marathon training.

Today started off pretty chilly. Temperatures were in the mid-40s when we met up and that's ice-cold for me. To me, anything under 60 degrees is quite chilly... yeah, I get no sympathy from my out-of-town readers, I know. Anyway, it was cold this morning but the only difference I made was to wear my gloves. I didn't wear long pants or a long-sleeve shirt or anything, just my gloves. I figured that if I started running and got hot, it would be easier to just take the gloves off.

And I like wearing gloves. I wore them a lot last winter, and today was really the first day I needed them since then as it's been a warm fall... if you can even call it fall... thus far. But today was definitely fall weather, although the sun was shining on us throughout the run.

I felt good, never felt cold, never felt the weather at all. I was surprised when we reached the turnaround mark, right around 7.7 miles or so, because I felt reallly good. I had used a Gu packet at Mile 5 and another one at Mile 10 (Vanilla Bean, yum!) and started to wonder if I'd hit the wall at around Mile 12 or 13. But we got to 12.9 miles when we got to the last water station and I was surprised that I felt like I had energy to burn.

One of my Loper buddies I'd been running with and talking to was complaining of stomach pain so I stayed with her as the rest of our diminished group went up ahead. But she fought through it and by the last mile or so we were running good. She sprinted down the stretch but I still had the foolish thought in mind that I wanted to keep running so I held back for a moment until I reached the end, and then I just figured it would be best to quit while I was ahead.

We finished our 15.38 miles in just under 2 hours 44 minutes, and I think the difference in how I felt today from last time was the weather. It wasn't boiling hot two weeks ago but it was a lot warmer than it was today.

Even though I know I could have ran more, I figured it would be best to bottle up that energy and take it with me to the Emerald City. In fact, while I was originally worried about the weather (forecast for next Sunday is a high of 47 degrees, possible chance of rain) I'm now encouraged by it. If a 10-degree change made such a difference in how I felt, I think I could similarly benefit by another slight dip in temperature.

The best part about having to figure out how to run 18 miles in Seattle was stumbling across new blogs. It seems the running blogosphere in the Northwest is quite strong. I came across mom vs. Marathon first and then went on to read Lisa runs? Wait... what? (she's actually in Northern California) and then Tall Mom on the Run and 5 Miles 2 Empty. Awesome blogs and I look forward to keeping up with their own running exploits. And there are even more blogs they all follow so I'll be busy checking out new running blogs. Sweet.

Anyway, I'm pumped now about knocking out what will be my longest run ever (I have a lot of those lately) in a new city. About the only thing that kinda bums me out is that the Seattle Marathon/Half-Marathon is scheduled for Nov. 29, a week after I'll be there. How awesome would it have been to run a half-marathon in Seattle?!? Oh well, maybe another day.

For now, I'll have my own little 18-mile party in Seattle. And that's not a bad consolation prize.