15+ miles is officially a long run for me and I put my first one in the books today since July12th. Finally having a marathon on the horizon really has me excited for running and I enjoyed all 2 hours out there in the freezing cold today. Even the trip up that damn Rex hill was not as bad as normal.

I ran the first 5 with Boomer who, I found out today, loves to eat snow and reminded me of that every time we passed by a patch clinging to life shadows of the park. I made the trip all the way out the park and back home to drop him off. At this point I had 40 minutes knocked out of my 2 hour goal for the day. A quick drink and I was back out the door and onto the trails in the Wissahickon.

The park in the winter is lonely compared to the summer, the trees are bare, people are rare, and the winds howls through the trees. I had my iPod to keep me company as I stuck to the lower trails all the way down to Lincoln Drive. From here I took Forbidden drive home and expected a slow slog up through the park into the biting wind. I caught a glimpse of a runner way ahead in a bright glowing fluorescent green and I made it my mission to pass him before we got to Valley green. This kept my mind and legs occupied as I tried to keep the pace just fast enough and succeeded in passing him as we approached the water fountain.

I kept the momentum going for the last 2 miles up and out of the park. I had to take a detour around my block at the end to get in the full two hours. A conservative 15.5 miles.

That makes 42 miles for the week, a total I have hit for the past three weeks. I feel good and I think it is time to push things into the 50s next week.