Feet by Jesus!

Let's just start off with the  most important bit of information here:
THIS RUN HAPPENED!!!
Thanks to my bestest friend Jesus for wrapping my feet in his protection =)
I was really really concerned last night that we would get out there and I would be able to go 10 feet and have to call it quits.
BUT.
I  DIDN'T!!

The main info:
15 miles (10:20 avg pace)

THE DEETS:



So, we were supposed to set off at 8am when my 'rents got here but they didn't show until a little after 8:30 so by the time we drove over to the Lake it was around 8:45. I opted to have us drive as I wanted to make sure we would have access to more water (didn't want a repeat of last weekend!). We planned to do 2 laps of the Lake (each is around 7.4 miles) and get our water in the middle (I had my hydration belt so I would just refill my bottles. Hubby didn't carry any water so he made sure to slosh up at the 1/2 way point).
I ate a banana and some PB ahead of time (I usually only do 1/4-1/2 banana but I had been up so long by the time we left that I was STARVING so I opted to splurge on the other 1/2)  =)

It was AWESOME to be able to wear shorts for this run. It was 50* when we started out but the wind was cu-RAZY!  (I actually wished at the beginning that I would have worn my ear warmers, gloves and face warmer. I'm a wimp and I know it!)

I warmed up enough to take off my LS in between mile 1 and 2. There were a LOT of people out today. We even saw some roller bladers out there!
My feet (and knee!) felt great the whole first lap!  I stopped to take my first 1/2 pk of Gu at mile 6 (also, my little pouch I wear on my hydration belt broke around mile 3! Hubs carried it the rest of the way for me. So glad I brought him along)
Stopped at the van between mile 7 and 8 to get some H20.  I had drank almost both of my flasks so I'm glad we had extra to refill with.

Getting ready to start the second loop...

The wind got a shot of Red Bull or something as we were going over the dam at the beginning of the 2nd loop. It was not only CRAZY windy (as in had to yell to hear each other) but it got noticeably colder (and I had just left my long sleeve in the van!), AND then started to spit down rain as well! Not the nice misty rain, but the cold, wind-blown, pelty kind of rain. Bleh.  Thankfully it didn't last long.

Momma can take pictures WHILE running! Talent, people!

I'm pretty sure there's a limit to how much stuff you can have around your waist while you run. I'm pretty sure I've exceeded that limit.

I don't know how many times I forgot he was wearing that thing on his arm under his sweatshirt. I DO know that I slap his arm a lot when he makes me laugh. Oops! Sorry honey!

 

Ducks.  That's all.



 

So. My foot started to bug me a bit around mile 10, so I merely hopped to the side of the trail and ran there for most of the remaining 5 miles and had no issues! (the wind blew me there half the time anyway-no joke)...I was able to hop back on the pavement every so often the last couple miles. I am SO thankful I was able to complete the distance though!

The wind (and running on the grass for the last 1/3 of the run), made this run feel much harder than our 13 miler a couple weeks ago (even though the pace was more than a minute faster per mile than this run!)

DONE!

It started raining again RIGHT when we took these pictures and it was COLD and it was WINDY. I usually walk for a few minutes but it was TOO cold to walk so I did a slow jog back to the parking lot and stayed in the shelter of our van to stretch. BOY was it cold!!

Refuel with Pepperjax? Don't mind if I do!
*Funny story here: as we left the Lake, hubs was like 'Let's get Pepperjax for lunch' and I was all 'YEAH!'...we drove almost the whole way there before we both realized that neither of us had anything on us other than our driver's licenses! Grrr.....thankfully, hubs was willing to go back out after we got home and pick it up. He's a keeper

Cream filled donuts are the BEST reward after a long run (right up there with a hot shower, fuzzy socks, and feet-up-on-the-couch time!)

Do you have any favorite post-long run foods/treats that you look forward to?