Coasting on good weather and good conversation

So I decided that, instead of being a total slug today, I'd accompany someone else for the first bit of her monster 30ish K run. 10 or so miles wouldn't hurt.

Getting up for an 8 am start did...I'm used to that the morning after the evening shift, but it still isn't pleasant. I drank some juice, pulled on some clothes, and left. Fortunately, I grabbed a gel at the last minute. Just in case. Why? I'll sometimes run 2hrs without eating or drinking anything, and feel fine.

Well, some higher power had a surprise for me in store. First, I felt cool. Shorts and long sleeves and gloves. I jogged over to the meeting point, and then we set off, and it was wonderful. Very peaceful. The leaves were so vibrant. There was frost, too, by the river, which was all sparkly and so on....ok, poetry escapes me, but the scene could have been in a snow globe without the snow or the shaking-up. And the pace was relaxing, the conversation interesting...well, we coasted to the point where I would have turned off to go home, and I didn't want to go.

There was no reason to, really.

There was an optional turning off point later on, for 25K. I still didn't want to go. What was 5K more? I ate my gel just in case, and my friend offered me some water, which I accepted. Very nice of her. I was totally unprepared...heck, I was wearing Nike Frees. However, I wasn't worried. I've long exceeded the recommended 'for easy runs 3-6 miles long' guidance or whatever it is. My regular running shoes tend to be pretty light and skimpy, too.

Near the end, I was starting to feel tired, and my quads were starting to feel sore. I will have to stretch them out more tonight. Other than that, it was a great run and I can't believe how quickly the 3+ hrs passed. I jogged home and figured out that, in total, I'd run 22.03 miles. A slight hair over the 10 miles I'd figured on. This bumps up my weekly mileage obscenely. Yes, obscenely. I was doubtful that I'd get over 70 miles/week during this training, and I'm now over 80. This is artificial, this is something I'm not going to do weeks on end, or even next week or anytime before 2009, I figure, but it's still something. geez. I miss my husband that much!

Now I'm partaking of the last bag of (victory) popcorn.