by Suzy
The same day that Kirsten ran her heroic, solo 18 miles, some of the rest of us ran 9.5 - one week earlier than indicated on the schedule. Why? Because Claudia and I were both scheduled to be out of town, and we just wanted to get the long run out of the way... so we hatched a plan to run it a week early. We weren't expecting anyone else to join us... but Nicole, Anna and Jennifer all did! Anna and Jen are training for their first half-marathon, so they are in that place of "every long run is the longest run I've ever done..." and they kicked it! Amazing ladies!
And Nicole... well... Nicole's characteristic quote is "I don't know how far I'll make it today. I -{insert various statements such as "have been sick and haven't run in 10 days" or "got two hours of sleep last night" etc. etc.}- and then she always freaking rocks it.
We ran the same 9.5 loop as the last training, because we love love love it. It's almost all along water, alternating between the bay with views of San Francisco, and a little lagoon path winding through a cute neighborhood. It changes a lot, so you constantly have the feeling that you've completed another segment, made progress. The weather was lovely, not too windy and not too hot, and everything is blooming right now. It was pretty wonderful.
A few days prior, Nicole and I ran a 3.7 segment of this same route, and it was a struggle for both of us. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - it's amazing how different things can feel from run to run. Mostly, though, I was struck by how awesome it felt to be getting back up into the higher mileage. I've really missed it - and I'm still completely shocked to be saying that!
What's weird is that the longer runs are consistently feeling easier to me than the shorter runs. What does that mean? Is it a sign of the coming apocalypse?
ReplyDeleteOh, excuse me, I'm a little nonsensical. Ya see, I only got two hours of sleep last night... (and I'm not sure I can make it all the way to that latte).