23 glorious miles!

Here I am, before we left the house this morning.  I can't even tell you how much I fantasized about our run today, particularly about getting out and enjoying the weather.  I even sported a tank top under my long-sleeved, so as to be able to strip off layers as necessary. ;)  They were wrong about the wind, though.  It was blowing.  Fortunately, it was a warm-ish breeze.

The first 12 miles or so flew by seamlessly.  I helped the time pass by jibber-jabbing away to my husband, hoping to distract us both enough to keep our minds off any fatigue we were feeling.  At some point around mile 12 or 13, we made a turn and the wind was immediately in our faces.  Even though it wasn't cold, there were very strong gusts, which became kind of annoying after a while.  Chris had put out Powerade and water at various locations along the second half of our route, and we continued along pretty well for another 5 or 6 miles.  I have to tell you, I was actually feeling surprisingly great.  We were doing a 3 minute to 1 minute Run/Walk ratio from the very beginning of our run, and even up until 20 miles, I felt pretty strong.

 (Here we are when we stopped at a gas station around mile 9 to use the restroom and get a drink.  Total stop time: about 5 minutes.)

Unfortunately, Chris was struggling by the time we reached mile 19.  He had been having issues with his knee/IT band, and it was flaring up and becoming an acute pain.  We took some additional walking breaks for a few minutes, hoping his pain would settle down, but it didn't seem like it was going to happen.  Finally, we decided I would go ahead and run on home the remaining 3-4 miles, then come back for him with the car.  I went on, running, starting to feel tired, a couple of my toenails were really bothering me, too, but I was still feeling mostly good.  When I reached the house, I called Chris on his phone and asked how he was doing.  He said he had been able to run through some of the pain and had less than 2 miles to go, so he didn't want me to come get him.  He persevered and finished the job.  I'm so proud of him for not giving up (though he has been doing A LOT of moaning, limping and laying down the rest of the day)! :)

(Chris stopping for water.)

Here I am again, after our run...

And here is Chris... ☺