I was excited to race this morning and jumped out of bed when the alarm went off at 7:00.  As usual I spent to much time farting around on the computer and was in a rush to get out the door by 8:00.  I hastily scrawled the directions to the race start on a orange post-it and headed out the door.  

I followed the directions exactly and was surprised to find that there was nothing resembling a sneaker store when I got to the end.  Just a residential neighborhood and industrial park building turned church.  Shit.   Did I copy them wrong?  Did I read them wrong?  I drove loops around the area, not wanting to get to far from the main road in order not to get lost.  I stopped in a 7-11, no help, Wawa - no help.   Wait there is a runner, I bet he is warming up for the race.  I hit the blinkers, block traffic and ask him if knows where Athletes Closet Running Store - No help.   

At this point it is 9:10, 20 minutes to race start and I still have no idea where the start is.  I am yelling at myself for being such a fool for not bringing my phone and copying the directions incorrectly.  I could do nothing but get back on the highway and head home.   This mistake threw off my entire day and I was aggravated for hours afterward.   I realized the error when I got home.  I had searched for Athletes Closet on Google.  Directions popped up and I wrote them down.  I didn't realize that the directions were to the zip code of the store, not actually to the store and I was a couple miles off.

I didn't get out the door for a long run until 2:00 and I decided to push myself to make up for missing the race.  This ended up being a bad idea.  I ran a hilly loop out over Harts Lane and down the river to Manayunk.  I charged all the hills and ran the first 10 miles at an average of 7:00 pace.   I ran the next 5 mostly uphill miles from Manayunk back to CH at 6:55 pace.   I was killing myself to keep up the pace and for the last 2.5 miles I just had to hang on to get home.  I felt like I was finishing a marathon.   

I was spent and couldn't eat much when I got home.  I showered and fell asleep on the couch for 2 hours, not a normal occurrence for me.  I can't decide if I should be happy that I ran a hard workout for the long run or be concerned because the average pace of the long run was 7:15 and I felt like I had killed myself.  I have run 7:20 pace in the past for a long run and felt great.

17.5 miles in 2:07.