The Last Long Run

   Well, we finally reached the last long run Mark and I needed to do until our taper weeks for our half marathon. Honestly, when my friend Jay convinced us to do the half in February, I never thought we would actually get to this point in our training. Me? Run 10 miles? A half marathon? I don't think so.
   But we did run our 10 miles on Saturday. And it was pretty great, actually. Luckily for us, my parents were able to come take care of our newly potty trained Addison so we could run potty break free. This is better for Mark, since he pushes her in the stroller. And after Thursday's pee pee accident while we were running, her staying closer to a bathroom was necessary.  So we are grateful to my parents for all of their support and help in watching her twice so we could get in a long run stroller, and cranky toddler free.
  As for the run, we started running right before a trail  relay race took off a mile behind us. We were less than a fourth mile into our run before the first runner zoomed passed us. I am used to people running past me at, what seems to me, great speeds, but this was new for Mark. I could tell by the shock on his face as he turned back to look at me that the person in first, did in fact, run like the wind. By the time I got to the first road, a half mile in, 4 runners had passed me. By the next half mile, the first women runners started passing me.
   There was something about running with the racers that made my running much easier. It was like I was one of them and we were all in this together. At about 2.5 miles, a runner passed me and said "It's only 6 and a half miles. We are going to crush this!" I thought, to bad I only have 3.5 miles more to go after that. But still, I ran further than I ever had until I had to take my first walking/drinking break. In fact, that was my whole run, I was able to run longer than I ever had before and take fewer breaks further apart. Soon the turn around point came and I was able to eat a little snack of fruit snacks to get me back home. I was then passing the last few racers and give them each encouragement as they were ending the end of their run.
  There is something about other runners acknowledging you as you run that makes your run easier. I think of it as Running Karma. You say "Morning" or "Hey" or "Keep Going" to another runner and you have a good morning and can keep going. By the 6 mile mark, all the trail runners were past me and I was forced to keep going without the race feeling in my running. But I was feeling great. My legs weren't that tired yet and I was in a pretty good mood still. I soon made it all the way back to our car, meeting Mark who had ran 11 miles in just under 2 hours. Sometimes his speed and athleticism makes me so green with envy, I can't even see straight.
   My time was 2:10. I didn't break the 2 hour mark like I wanted to, but I was forced to wait at two stoplights and several intersections, which I am pretty sure hurt my time. It is hard to get back into pace when you had to stand at a street corner for a couple of minutes. But I don't care. I was so happy that I made it! And I felt awesome. I can't wait for May 18. It isn't coming fast enough for me.

  For those of you (me!me!) who need motivation, here is the best I have found... Thanks Josh for pointing this out to me.