20 Miler #2 DONE, and It's Here!

Last Saturday, I did my second twenty miler.  I was at a loss on where to run.  We didn't have any pressing plans, and I didn't have anyone lined up to run with by 6pm on Friday for Saturday.  My usuals were either unavailable or not running far enough to justify driving into the city to run only half with them and still be on my own for the harder second half.  I wasn't sure if I should just run around Crestwood, doing the Old La Grange route, and then into Pewee Valley, and then back, similar to my 19 mile route with Erin, but just one more mile.  Then, I realized that my neighbor had a friend, Kim, who was in charge of a massive group run that was doing 18.  Sweet.  She even had folks that she expected to be my pace, and she lived further away than I do, and could "pick me up", so I could follow her down.  Since I was going to add on 2 more, I wanted to make sure I had my own car, even though she thought I would still finish ahead.  I really wasn't sure. 

There was a huge group of people, but there really wasn't anyone my pace that started with me.  I felt a little "behind", because when I got there, my GARMIN WOULD NOT TURN ON!  Are you freaking kidding me?  20 miles, no Garmin.  GRRR!  I was pretty proud of myself for not completely freaking out.  I knew I had an 18 mile route planned, and if I did that route, I would have 18.  I also knew that I am capable of doing math while running and could calculate some sort of pace based on my final time for 18 miles to figure out how far I needed to run in 1 direction before turning around to call it my final 2 miles.  Needless to say, I took off running just what felt good, and kept telling myself, this is not a race, don't race it, be comfortable.  I was running sort of with another guy, and I didn't want to do what I have done to Cristina before in this situation, which is ask every .1 miles either how fast or how far we have gone.  I knew that would be incredibly annoying.  I've been a runner for long enough that as long as I am not hurting, I can sort of judge about how far I am going with enough certainty to know when I need a gu and such.  Also, the route was 2 lollipops, very simple, and each 9 miles, so I knew when I got to the first one, I should probably be about 3-4 miles away, so I could loop around and then run back for my first 9.  I hit the starting spot at 1:16.  Holy smoking fast!  I knew that miles 12-15 would be hilly, in a park that I races in for the LSC half, and told myself I was allowed to slow down a bit if I needed to.  I did slow up a bit on these hills, and it was fabulous to run this out and back section.  I seriously felt like I was in a race with the number of runners out there.  I guess that is what it is like running in a city park that is practically downtown (the first half took us all the way to the river rd near where the IM starts).  That really helped push me along.  There was always someone up ahead that I could "catch".  I passed one group of ladies and I don't recall what they said, but it was something to the effect that I made them look like they were standing still.  I wasn't trying to show people up, but I was just trying to train how I needed to train for my race.  I kept just trying to keep track with my timex and have my gus on time, and I was pleased to get back to the start again at 2:37!  Sweet!  I ran out about another 8:30, and then turned around and finished in 2:54:22.  Awesome!  I was so pumped.  I definitely felt tired though.  I felt way more tired than I did after my last 20 miler, which was done about 6 minutes slower overall, and had a different hill structure.  I was a lot more tired after this run later in the day than the first.  Our master bathtub is now 3/3 for ice baths/uses.  I think it really helped, though. 

One of the cooler parts of this run was running along 3rd Street, which contains historical homes.  Check out these two that I pulled off of Old Louisville's Autumn page.  The homes were very impressive, although running through the city made it hard to watch for traffic because there were lots of lights downtown.

So, right after I finished up with this run, I went ahead and order my Boston jacket.  I wanted to have it beforehand so that I don't have to stress about buying stuff at the expo.  It came TODAY!  I tried it on, and I must say, I am super pleased with it.  It isn't quite as long as my previous jacket, and the neck is a little snug, but overall, I LOVE IT!  I am glad I read the reviews, and ordered the size I did, because any smaller and it would probably be too small for a running jacket.  Really, it could fit terribly and I wouldn't care because it is a Boston Jacket!  Now that I opened it up, inspected it, and tried it on, it is all packed back up in its box to wait until the afternoon of April 16th.  Whoo Hoo!

 Not sure why this pic is sideways.  It wasn't like this on my computer, but blogger turned it!

I also dealt with sick kids today.  It was fabulous outside, and of course, poor Keira is sick.  What do I do with sick kids?  I put them in the jogging stroller and run with them when they can't go to school.  Playing outside was sort of out because she was just too tired really, and I didn't want any of the neighbor kids to wander over and get contaminated.  Keira should be back at school tomorrow.  We did 6 in just under 51 minutes with the 100lb+ jogging stroller.  Lets just say I had a bit of extra motivation when I peeked in at Soren and saw that he can found a random crayon and drawn all over the inside.  ACK!  This wasn't even one of the special washable ones.  That lit a major fire under me to get him home and in time out so I could scrub.  Most of it came out, and it is finally acceptable.

This week is another recovery week, and then I have one more 20 miler before tapering begins.  I am not sure if I will run with this new group for it or not.  I might see if Erin is available, or just run it on my own again, but here so I don't have the travel time to keep me away from the family.  It was nice to be able to just run whatever I felt like running since I didn't have Cristina to pull me along at her faster pace.  It was nice that I was able to do it on my own this time around!