Twelve

Julie and I have been doing our long runs as soon as the kids go to school ~ around 8:20.  We've been working on our attitudes about it all week ~ mini pep assembly for both of us.  Our 12 miler was scheduled for Friday morning, today.

Yesterday was a busy day for me (yes, I have a point, hang with me).  I got up, got the kids out the door, took Sarah to school, dropped off Booster Club stuff, took the cat to the vet, drove an hour north to return something at the outlet mall, waited for the mall to open, did a little shopping, drove to downtown Portland, found a parking garage, got my car settled, walked almost in the door of NikeTown when I got a text.  I stopped to read it and it was from Julie.  It read: "Good news.  We will be getting done at this time tomorrow. :-)"  Stopped me in my tracks.  I had done SO much that morning already and traveled pretty far from home.  To realize all that could be accomplished during my run today was very intimidating! 

So anyway... we met at 8:20 this morning at The Pill Box and ran down Miller, out to the highway, down the highway to the green Victorian farmhouse, and all the way back.  Figuring out how to dress was tricky.  The forecast was rain and cold, the ground was soaked, but the sky was partly blue.  First I dressed in all my cold gear, then I changed into lighter weight fare.  I finally ended up in running pants and a t-shirt with a long sleeved shirt over the top.  I packed Shot Bloks, a Clif Bar, and a big old jug of Gatorade.  Sure enough, it was pretty warm out there.  I ditched the long sleeves at the church where we made a pit stop and ran in short sleeves.  Oregon weather is so unpredictable. 

Our run was good... the fear of a very tough run like last week motivated lots of good behavior this week (except for the Candy Pumpkin Incident, but we won't dwell on that...).  We were well hydrated, better rested, good attitudes, ready to roll.  We have been doing 5/1 intervals for the long runs, but today tried out 6/1.  We popped Shot Bloks, hydrated, and ran hard.  (Please don't ask me to define that.  It was hard, trust me).  We spent a couple of miles running into a headwind which was tricky, but on the way home we also had the wind at our back for a few miles.  The sky was spectacular most of the way ~ blue sky, puffy white clouds with black clouds in the distance, autumn colors, a big flock of birds migrating overhead, and even a rainbow set against a black cloud.

The last two miles we finally ran into the rain.  The sky got black and opened up one heckuva cold, pounding wet on us.  Thank goodness it waited until the end and it was good motivation to hurry up and finish the last two miles without intervals.  We finished the 12 miles in 2 hours and 16 minutes and were extremely happy with that considering we ran the Terrible 11 in 2 hours and 13 minutes. 

Another one down!