Longest run to date!

Yay for runs longer than a half-marathon!  That means this is really happening:

We again followed the "loop" strategy.  There are three loops.  The first one goes to the West and back on 55th.  The second goes down to the East and South along the Turkey Creek trails, and the final one goes back North and West through the park and back. 

Erin and I were able to ship the Ellie-Meister off to the Parental Units for the morning.  That allowed us to go for a nice, casual training run.  This wasn't record setting pace (about 9:42ish), but enough to put us in that "45 seconds slower than your hopeful pace" category.  The route worked out really well - pretty flat to start, reasonably shaded on the T.C. trails (and flat), followed by a spirited trip through the park to finish it off.  

My ankle started hurting from the very get go - as in, less than a quarter mile from the house.  I just couldn't shake it.  We stopped for a minute while I tried many tricks to shake it out.  It was almost as if something had to pop or loosen up to get it going.  Once that occurred, I had no more trouble with it for the rest of the run.  Go figure.  My quad hurt on and off throughout the run, but it loosened up and became a non-issue.  My feet had NO PAIN throughout the entire run - a first!  The only things I will have to be weary of are my knees (ice and such) and working on hip strength.  The ol' hips were feeling it on the last loop for sure.

The loops are great - Finished the first 4 mile loop - got some water - bathroom, etc.  We originally weren't planning on doing the entire T.C. trails, but we got going and realized it would be easy mileage.  There were water fountains on the trail, so that made it nice.  We hit up some Gu on the end of "Part 2" and finished strong.

All-in-all, we're beginning to think that this marathon is very achievable.  It just goes to show that, in spite of our best efforts to NOT train as much as we needed to, we just might be ready after all.  Only time will tell.

Along with the title, this was the longest run of my life.  My previously longest was my Half-Marathon Run in the Half-Ironman Tri that we did a few years back.  It's a good feeling to know that such a feat (over 13.1) without death is achievable.

D

Running Total:
April:  40.66

2012:  137.66