MIT run: 12 miles!

Edit: I lifted this picture off of Fleet Feet's Facebook page.
Pretty crazy!

Ran 12 miles this morning through the streets of Worthington, which beat my old record of 11. And I'll be beating it again, and again, and again, until race day.

What a morning. Today was all about toughing it out. 

I almost didn't go. My stomach hurt when I got up, probably from eating too much Trader Joe's pesto tortellini. I've had cold symptoms on and off all week. But I'm glad I got my lazy butt out of bed (partially thanks to a redheaded greyhound who really had to pee). 

We usually run on the bike path but I guess it wasn't in great shape with all the ice, so we ran through Worthington neighborhoods. Those poor people, living on a quiet backstreet in suburbia, suddenly have 500 people coming through. Two kids were staring at us out their bedroom window. One guy was trying to back out of his driveway and was getting very irritated.

The run went very well, went with a good group of people as always. It started to rain/snow toward the end and I could literally feel bits of ice bouncing off my face. The ninth mile was the toughest, especially since we ran past the school where we started so it would have been so easy to just cut it short. Then the last two I was just on auto pilot.  

(Ok, I just bolted off the couch to grab my phone, literally every muscle I have protested). (continued)

A quick post for a lazy Sunday

This is going to be a quick post, namely because I just started watching Lost on Netflix and am seriously addicted. I just finished episode 4 of season one and all I can do is keep wondering "what did Kate do?? And Locke is a brilliant character.

First off, wanted to give a shoutout to my buddy Bill from MIT. The Marion Star, one of the papers I work for, ran a nice article about him. I'm also excited for my college friend Theresa, who is going to be starting the Couch to 5K program and blogging about it.

I had a great run yesterday, despite my Garmin dying a mile into it. Well, great for 9 miles, anyway. Ran next to a fellow journalist for the first leg and then on the way back ended up running with a really cool older guy named Bill who had all kinds of stories. The people in my pace team are all really wonderful!

The temperature was in the high 20s, which felt like spring compared to last week. (continued)

8 miles in sub-zero temperatures

BURR It was cold this morning! Accuweather forecast for Worthington for when we were running is to the left. I repeat, burr!

A girl in my group had it right, it definitely takes a certain kind of person to get out there on these types of mornings. I never would have considered myself that kind of person, but there I was.

We did 8 miles in 1 hour and 26 minutes, giving me 23 miles for the week.

I wore my MIT jacket, a long sleeved tee and a long sleeved tech tee. I wore a pair of athletic pants over the Under Armour compression tights I bought yesterday.

Normally you start off cold and warm up quickly, but not today. One mile in... freezing. Two miles in... still freezing. Three miles in, I didn't even want to stop for water, cold drinks of any kind were not appealing in the least. I went for my Gu Chomps, and those were frozen... completely inedible!

The girls all had frosty hair and eyebrows. My Garmin couldn't take the cold, it kept going back and forth between 5 and 9 mph.

After we turned around at three I was just numb. By mile four I'm starting to get some feeling back in my chest and thighs. By mile five I can feel my arms and legs. It wasn't until mile six that I can say I was at all comfortable.

I was going to stop at six but a girl in my group talked me into doing an extra two. Why not, it took so long to get warmed up, might as well keep going!

Burr. And yes I know I lived in Maine for 2.5 years, but still, BURR!!!

Not sure on the plan for next week yet, I'm exhausted, time to curl up with a book in my nice warm bed (which it looks like I'll be sharing with two stubborn greyhounds, one of which has made a nest with all my blankets.)

Here's the beauty of going to MIT every Saturday morning: I get my run out of the way first thing, then I get all my other errands done on the way in. By noon I am done done done done done for the weekend!