First 20 Miler for Providence

Saturday there was about an inch of slush on the bike path where I was to run my first 20 miler for this marathon training cycle. The nice cold rain and a temperature in the low 30s made the thought of running less than desirable, but I was meeting AM, and running with AM is awesome. So slushy Saturday it was.

Slushy and cold turned out fine. The plan was to park and run 3 miles to where AM would be waiting. I'm not too familiar with the area, just to make sure I asked the older man in the parking lot ticket booth if I was heading in right direction. He sort of squinted at me and said, "yup, now why are you running on a day like today?" I just smiled, tipped my baseball cap in thanks, and ran off.

A little further down, the bike path was deserted. I was reminded of Frost's "the woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." Then, of course, I ran through a puddle and started thinking in four letter expletives. For some reason, I'm a baby when it comes to running through puddles. It's like I think my feet will stay dry if only those puddles weren't there, but let's be realistic, how could my feet possible stay dry running through an inch of slush?

About 2 miles into the run, I found AM, and we were off. The rest of the run was great and passed by fast. The effort felt a little harder than my 20 milers for BayState and it was a bit slower (7:55 pace), but I was still recovering from being sick and the slush probably slowed me down too (it was a little slippery). On the positive side, I ran the day before and the day after, and I felt good the rest of the day. It's the first 20 miler I've run that didn't upset my stomach for the rest of the day, which makes running that much more pleasant. Overall, I'm pleased.

On the home front, everyone is healthy and happy! Yay! Kaylee has been talking up a storm and telling some really creative dynamic stories, which is so much fun to be around. Emily has been running laps around the house...nonstop. She runs and runs and runs some more. It's mostly funny because she has a fierce look of concentration while she's doing it. And Nick has been excited about building a new computer. After my long run, we drove into the city to pick up some computer parts. Nick was discussing motherboards, and Kaylee was all "daddy I think you're mistaken and actually mean keyboards." Ahhh, things are so nice when everyone is healthy...