Sixteen Candles. Nope, Sixteen Miles.

That's kind of how I start talking toward the end of a long run.  Think I better start salting. 

I just got home from my sixteen mile run with Julie and I don't think I've ever been this tired in my life.  Okay, maybe delivering babies, but that's it.  I told Julie I couldn't sit down before showering or I'd never get up, but I landed in this chair and now I'm in trouble.  Might as well write this down while I still can't feel my feet. 

Today is the most beautiful day for a long run ~ it's sunny and currently 47 degrees.  Perfect.  I met Julie at Whitworth and the plan was to run to Burgerville in the next town and back.  We were both feeling pretty confident, I think.  Nervous but excited and ready to roll.  The first few miles felt chilly, but we warmed up nicely as we headed out into the countryside.  Traffic was heavy today and about 3 miles out we passed a tree trimming crew set up with guys controlling traffic and a bucket truck.  Neither of the traffic guys paid us much notice. 

Our run to Burgerville went very well.  We felt strong and were discussing foolish things like how 26 miles is starting to seem attainable, and how it was so warm it almost felt like summer.  These were ignorant conversations, soon to be regretted. 

We ran into Burgerville at the halfway point and took a quick bathroom break, then back out onto the road.  Whoa! Seems we ran the first half with a pretty strong wind at our back as we were now running dead on into a good old headwind.  We had both choked and gagged down a Gu packet at the halfway point, so we had a little pep for a bit, but that wind really dragged us down fast.  We spent about the next 5 miles running slightly uphill and into the wind.  Everything got louder, colder, harder, slower.  Oh yes, we were having fun now. 

Before long things that never hurt were hurting.  Finally at around mile 12 or 13 we made a 90 degree turn out of the headwind and got a bit of relief from it.  The noise level dropped, the temperature felt warmer and thank the good Lord that wind wasn't in our faces.  Still, we had run through some tough stuff and were hurting more than normal at that point, so we struggled on.

With maybe 2.5 miles to go we were closing in on that tree trimming crew again.  As we ran toward the first traffic guy he yelled something like, "ARE YOU RUNNING ALL THE WAY TO TOWN???" and we hollered back at him.  After we passed by he was yelling and swearing, over and over, "HOT D*MN! LOOK AT YOU GO!"  etc.  We were fist pumping and hollering back and I'm telling you it was the first time I've ever been so happy to have someone swearing at me!  We were both so energized!  I think it lasted all of a quarter mile before we remembered how much pain we were in.  lol

We limped our last couple of miles back the cars.  This was certainly not a glory run.  In fact, the last half really kind of stunk.  I'm hobbling pretty bad right now and this is going to hurt for awhile.  It's done, though, and thankfully I don't have to think about facing the next one for awhile. We finished our sixteen in 3 hours, 16 minutes.  That includes between 4 - 6 minutes at Burgerville to use the bathrooms.  Not bad, considering.