20 on Friday

Thursday was a DNR and I only have 21 miles so far this week with three days left. I am going to need a big weekend to hit 60 miles for the week.

My planned Saturday morning 20 miler was looking very wet and windy beacause of a little storm named Ernesto. I remember an 18 miles last year in similar weather and it wasn't pretty, I didn't want to repeat that. I could either push my run till later Saturday after the rain had stopped or wait until Sunday morning. Niether option was very appealing. I like to get my long run out of the way early in the weekend beacuse I tend to dwell on it and worry if it is going to go well.
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Thursday night Heather had the brilliant idea that I should just do my long run on Friday. I was off from work and the weather was cool so why not. For some reason this never crossed my mind, my long runs have always been Saturday and that's the way it is.

I debated it in morning and decided to go out for 10, if I felt good and the rain had held off I would do 20. The first 5 miles on forbidden drive felt great and although it looked like it might rain any second it was still dry so 20 was looking more likely.

I made it to the end of Forbidden Drive and at this point just to get back to my house was a total of 13 miles so I was comitted. I looped around in the park, took some trails and rehashed the same route a few times to get my mileage up to 20. My pace the entire way was between 7:15 and 7:45 with most of the miles longer than 7:30.

It threatened ran the entire way, some sprinkles here and there and an occasional gust of wind but it just never came. Thank God. Sometimes the rain can be refreshing but this wasn't one of those days and I was glad to finish with a shirt damp with sweat but not with rain.

I ended with a little over 20 miles in 2 hr 36 min. The first of 3, 20 milers this year and it went very well. Not a bad way to start of September