Long Run Recap!

After Saturday's excitement of feeling like CRAP all day, I was relieved to wake up feeling decent on Sunday morning.  We were up early to watch our UW Huskies take on UNC.  Poor JJ was so confused as to why we were out of bed so early AND yelling. :(

Disappointed with the outcome of the game, we headed to the big dog park so JJ could run around with his BFF Norman.  After walking around there for a mile+, I felt good enough to tackle the 5 miles I had on plan for the day.

The weather was typical Seattle spring - sunny and hot one moment, cold and gusty the next.  I chickened out and wore my full-length Wunder Unders under my skirt.  I'm thankful I did. 

Going for the 'Ninja' look

The first two miles had a strong, COLD headwind that made me feel like I was going nowhere fast.  Bleh!  The wind was freezing, all of the radio stations I normally listen to were on commercial, the wind was drying out my gum...BLEHx3.

I hit Golden Gardens and turned to go up The Stairs.  I've never been up them before, but heard they were nuts.  They are basically a set of stairs built into the side of a cliff, and you gain 325ft of elevation, straight up.  WHEEE.

The stairs kind of kicked my butt, but I managed to get up them relatively quickly.  Running felt SO EASY after that!  From there, it was a relatively straight shot down 30 city blocks, then left 5 city blocks, to end in front of Starbucks.  (What?  I wanted coffee when I planned this route.)

So yes.  5 miles done.  I purposefully stayed SLOW the first two miles (12:10ish), then cranked out the second half of the run on 'autopilot' pace - which is apparently 11:15!  WHAT?!  That's right folks, for the first time ever, I ran on 'autopilot'.  My mind was somewhere else completely, I didn't even think about running, and was shocked when I had to stop for a red light.  I looked at the Garmin and - what the - a whole mile had gone by.  WOOOOO!

Why did I tell him to take pictures for the blog when I got home?

So thirsty, bringing the handheld next weekend.

Excited for next week's 6 miles.  There's a 5k that starts two blocks away from from my front door (literally), so I am going to do 3 miles before and run the 5k with my neighbors.