22 miles.... done and in the books

I finished! Making a total of 33 miles for the weekend
I feel great. Yeah my muscles are sore but I am not exhausted and my spirits are high!

The alarm went off at 6 a.m. For about 10 seconds I thought about waiting another hour and decided against it. It was now or never. Breakfast was a bagel, a banana and some water and off I went.

Driving over I changed my route yet again. I would do the same route but decided on the 4 miles out to Norristown and back would be the first leg. This is a lot of new territory for running. I've walked that years ago but our training runs usually don't go past the 27.5 marker in that direction. I would be going 2 more miles before turning around. I decided I wanted fresh body and mind for the unknown. I think it was a good idea. I went out to 25.5, walked for the time it took to down a gu and some water, stopped briefly to stretch and headed back.

At 29.5 I headed down the the water fountain to fill my bottles, stretched, downed another gu and headed off in the direction of Oaks. When I got down the hill I turned left to add the exta mile that I needed. This was a very very very muddy 1/2 mile out and 1/2 mile back. The rains last night made a real mess of the trail. My sneaks are a mess. They'll clean up after they dry out but I threw out the socks. They aren't worth the effort to clean them. That's how bad it was. I think this is where running slow was a good thing. A faster runner would probably lose their footing in that muck.

So out to the dog park toward Phoenixville and back. After that, I walked back up the hill to the bridge across the Perkiomen Creek. I took a gu and water and at the top of the hill stopped to stretch. A little over 4 miles back to 29.5.

All along I had been thinking that if I got back to 29.5 and felt good mentally I would add another 2 miles. Well 29.5 arrived and I still had it together in my head tho my muscles were aching. My joints were good though. I watered up and decided I'd take it 1/2 mile at a time. I turned back toward 30...if I made it there and felt like it I'd go to 30.5 before turning around. Well I did make it to 30.5 and back. All that remained was the approx .75 back to the car.

The last half mile I was starving... really felt hungry..... like i would have eaten eggplant and lima beans which I HATE!!! So I didn't hydrate well enough. It was cool and I wasn't paying enough attention. I really only drank when I gued and that obviously was not enough. It also took a very long time to finish. I'll stil manage to finish Goofy in time to qualify for the medal(s) .... it will be a very long day.

I arrived home, showered, took an alleve and ate some salad. On the way home I had a peanut butter granola bar... and lots of water. I've been trying to make sure I get up and walk every 30 minutes or so if I'm sitting and although sore I'm not stiff. Of course getting out of bed tomorrow may be a different story.