I guess you can’t teach an old runner, new tricks .. I wrote on Thursday about how I was supposed to step back this weekend and rest up by doing under 14 miles for my long run, and it just didn’t happen. Somehow I got motivated enough to get in just about 19 miles instead … maybe it was the weather that did it. Yep, it was 40 degrees this morning at 6am when I headed out. I swear that it felt like summertime compared to what I have been running in since mid December.

There are definite benefits to having a day like today, in that it was almost like what the weather will be for the Ocean Drive Marathon in a few weeks. It also gave me a chance to really work on my pace .. and I did manage to slow it down a little since I wasn’t freezing cold (and literally frozen). I did the 19 miles in 2 hours and 37 minutes, which is closer to a 9 minute mile than i’ve been so far..

I did have some experiences from my run today though. First, I was at about mile 9 when I finally got fed up with my running pants slowly falling down. I guess I didn’t have them tied as good as I should have. I guess I actually tied them this morning before I packed all my gear in the pockets (mp3, gels, phone, etc), so the weight was pulling them down. It was starting to get annoying to keep pulling them up, so I actually stopped in one of the ritzy developments I was running through to pull them up, and retie .. some guy walking his dog looked at me like I was crazy… I returned the weird look back at him though because it was a big guy, walking a little ‘kick-me’ dog. It HAD to be his wife’s dog … (I hope at least).

So I had a close call with a car at about mile 13 .. it was as I was running down Main Street near my house where there is a side road that comes in at a blind angle .. I slowed down because there was a car at the stop sign (in the crosswalk though), so I went to run behind the car and some guy in a beat up red truck was flying around the corner and slammed his brakes on for the stop sign (he was definitely speeding) .. I thankfully was able to pull back and stop myself, then go around him as I politely hung him the finger.. I always do my best to run defensively, but this was just one of the cases that if it was going to happen, it was going to happen .. thankfully it didn’t.

My last one was right towards the end of my run with a bunch of senior citizens in a car .. I always run on the road right along the curb, even if there are sidewalks, just because I’ve always done that. Apparently these seniors thought I should have been on the sidewalk and not on the road. They actually slowed down and pointed me towards the sidewalk .. I could have reacted like I did to the guy in the red truck, but I decided to act like I didn’t see them and just went on my way. I couldn’t believe they could be so rude as to imply that I couldn’t run on the road????

When I got back to the house though, my calves were really burning, i’m not sure why. Once I sat down for a bit, I felt a whole lot better. So much for just getting a 14 miler in, but if you’re a runner, you know that its hard to just not do the long run … i’m really an addict in that sense.

So tomorrow is supposed to offer some rain, sleet, snow … who knows… at this point i’ve seen it all, so i’m not afraid of anything. Bring it on, a 10 mile hill run in the January RAIN!