A Wet Run

Today I had a wet 17 mile run. No, not because it rained. Shockingly, it didn't rain. The radar showed this huge swatch of rain coming our way about 1 hour into my run, so every minute after the first 60 that it didn't rain I considered a win. But it never did rain. No, instead I was soaked with sweat from the 74% humidity. Like wring your cloths out soaked. Like if it had rained, I probably couldn't get any wetter soaked. (If you're thinking 'Ew, gross, she just wrote that?' Yes, I did. It's a runner's blog for pete's sake!)

But the low-70 degree temps and steady breeze more than made up for the humidity so it ended up being a nice run. I did the Northerly Island Loop then added on the extra 11 miles on the Lake Front Path going north.The path wasn't as busy as usual (probably because of the threatening radar) which was nice.

Overall, it was a good run. Building up the long runs is not very fun, the whole goal being to suffer now so you don't suffer as much in the race. To be honest, today I really had minimal suffering. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying I think I'm in better marathon shape than maybe ever before. I didn't really have any soreness until the last mile and even that was minimal. Sure I got tired at various points but usually a goo chomp or two would perk me up pretty well for a few more miles. I kept thinking "relax, stay strong, and keep running" as my mantra for the day. At mile 11 (the north end turn around for this particular run), I certainly would have preferred for the run to be over but I wasn't completely miserable about the remaining 6 miles either.

I ended up running 17 miles @ 9:39 pace for total time of 2:44:15. I did not turn my Garmin off at water fountains except when there was a line (3 times). I also turned it off briefly at 3 red lights. I could have ran faster if it was a race situation. So I think I may be right about where I should be for an attempt at a sub-4 hour marathon on a day where everything comes together. I sorta hope that happens this November at the Outer Banks. I guess we'll see!

Happy Running to All!