Friendly 18 Miles

I typically reserve my Sundays for long runs, but a bunch of us from marathon training class decided to do a group run on Saturday morning at the Alki beach in Seattle. Since I am getting pretty tired of the Sammamish River trail, I was willing to switch up my schedule just to get some new scenery.

I doubled my usual pre-run breakfast to prep for the long run ahead: Dave’s Killer Light bread, peanut butter, banana and Vitamin Zero water (not pictured).

I rushed out the door at 7:15 to meet up with the rest of the folks at the Alki Beach terminal 5. The Alki Beach is known for its beautiful views of Seattle, so I was excited for the route ahead.

M0st of the folks are training for a half marathon either in November or December, so they only had 7 miles on their schedule.

My trainer and I were the only 18milers in the group.

The 7 miles we all ran together, sharing our running experiences and upcoming race plans. We kept a steady pace of 9 min/mile or so. The time flew by. I did not even notice how we got back to the starting point. Courtney and I said our goodbyes to the group and headed out for another 11 miles. I hit a wall at about the 11th mile. I kept checking my watch and it felt like we were barely moving for the next 4 miles. Courtney kept cheering me on and pre-occupying me with her stories. I was starting to get tired, so I had a quick snack of a sample size Larabar which was a perfect pick-me up. At mile 15, I caught a second wind and sped up to 8:30 min/mile. I knew I could do 3 more miles; that’s just a usual warm-up distance for me. At the last mile, I got into the zone and was able to turn my pace up even more, to 8 min/mile.

My body was sore, but I felt amazing after I was done. I drove back with a huge smile on my face (I totally get what they mean by runner’s high now. I was high as a kite )

I was famished when I got back to Redmond, so Eric and I met for lunch at Gyro World near our house. I buried my face in my plate and did not look up until it was completely devoured. (I make for a great lunch companion )

Dinner was easy. Remember the shredded chicken I made on Thursday… It came in handy as a tostada topping along with avocado, black beans, shredded cheese and some brown rice. Yum!

We finished a bottle of Oregon Pinot that we brought from our last roadtrip with some WASA crackers, Fig Butter and Jarlsburg cheese. This is a heavenly substitute for regular cheese and crackers with far less calories and fat.

Wine makes me happy! How I wish weekends were longer