18 miles (2.19.12) - Downtown!

I met Adrienne to run today. We ran with her normal running group.  I hadn't run with them before.  They meet on Herrs Island.  I didn't even know where it was or that we had an island. I left home in plenty of time to get there just in case I got lost.  I was there 15 minutes early.  We got started about 20 minutes late. I'm not used to starting so late.

The first few miles were more of a struggle and I thought we were going too fast.  I thought we'd go about 9:45-10:00 pace and that the group would split into 2.   There were 9 people running with us at the beginning.  It was one other person's first time there too. (We took a group picture but I am still waiting to see it.)

Around every 4 miles, Adrienne's dad met up with us. He was the support vehicle. I'm not used to that and it was really nice. I removed some layers and was able to throw them in the car.  It was also nice to be able to get water.

We made a bathroom stop around mile 11.

I started running with the group and figured I'd try to make it until at least 12 and I'd definitely be done at 16 and just get a ride to the end.

Mile 15 went pretty quick because I was talking up a storm.

Adrienne and I decided to finish it out. We kept saying we'd run:walk it if need be but it never came to that.   We ran to 18 miles then walked the last .4 as a cooldown.  Overall today's run was much better than my last 18 mile training run. (My last 18 mile run involved running with a running group for the first time too.)  The only other time I ran about 18 miles was my 30k race. The 30k was 20 minutes longer and ~.5 longer.

We went out to brunch afterwards. Since I didn't know what was up with the place or anything, I didn't have a change of clothes.  One runner even showered before brunch.  I did have a different shirt to put on but that was it.  Now I'll know for next time.  There were 6 of us at brunch (5 runners plus Adrienne's dad).  All the other runners ran different cut offs to get shorter distances.  I heard them say that the group usually isn't as big as it was at the start.  I wonder how many they normally have.

Adrienne was in charge of making the route today. She made it and created direction sheets for everyone. They were even laminated. I'm impressed. I'm sad I dropped my (and another runner picked it up and kept it).  Before we left to run, Jill got her phone stuck in the hinge on her car.  That was an ordeal. She ended up with a cracked screen.  It was pretty funny that while it was stuck, it was ringing.

How Adrienne planned out the run

How the Garmin messed up in the city

Elevation and speed chart

I was surprised how easy it was to run in the city. I thought we'd be hitting don't walk signs every second but there wasn't much traffic on the weekend and we got really lucky at a lot of busy street corners.  Some people would have liked the rest at each corner though. 

My calorie burn. You can tell when we stopped at the car.

This is a different Fit Coach wording than I have seen.

My steps for the day so far

Our route. I think in 3 places it is different than the plan. The only one I remember was about a ramp near the end.
But Adrienne said she cut off distances in 2 places and added distance in 1 place. 

I could go on and on but I'm tired so I'll just have to try to remember the rest of the details for later and maybe add them here or just hope they stay in my memory bank for future long runs.

Today when Adrienne's dad saw me he said "well you didn't gain any weight I see."
Most of the people at brunch talked about eating healthy and how bad for you the brunch food we had was. I may be hardcore with my exercise but I am not with my eating.
At one point on the course we had to go down steps to get from one road/bridge to another road.  I have no idea how Adrienne memorized the course.  There is just no way I would have been able to do that.