We almost made it to 20...

This morning's long run was fun, but warm.  I ran with a friend I was introduced to through my friend Holly.  He is a 70-something year old great-grandfather who has been running marathons for over 30 years.  If that's not motivation for healthy living, I don't know what is!  He will also be running the Pocatello Marathon in two weeks, with his granddaughter who, once an elite college soccer player, had a baby about a year ago and has used training for this marathon as a way to take off the baby-weight.

Anyway, I had a great time running with him for 19.5 miles.  We talked about family, faith, societal issues and shared funny running stories.  We had planned to leave around 6am and go 18-20 miles, depending on how we felt.  Due to an alarm mishap, he didn't come pick me up until almost 7, so by the time we got going it was already starting to get a little warm.  When we reached the 19 mile mark, we were both feeling pretty well cooked, so I gave Chris a call to come get us.  When he arrived at our location, we had made it to 19.5 miles overall.  I was feeling a little schooled by the older guy, when I felt my pace start to slow during the last few miles and he seemed to still have pep in his step!  He's awesome!  My legs were feeling fatigued, for sure, but I felt better when I realized that we had gone that (almost) 20 miles maintaining an average pace right around 11 min/mile with walking breaks.  I'm okay with that.

I wish I had a picture to share with you showing us running somewhere on our route, especially since we ran the first 20 of the Pocatello Marathon course.  Instead I'll just share this picture of a mama moose with twin calves that Chris and I spotted on that same road just a couple of nights ago.  Maybe we'll get to see them again on marathon morning...