#tcsny

the 20 miler! it happened!

this weekend the weatherman warned of hurricane joaquin coming to town, but growing up in florida, i know better than to buy in to the hype.  we got some rain on friday, but other than that, (thankfully) the storm did not make landfall up here. and so i ran according to plan on saturday morning, all 20 miles of that plan!

when i woke up though, it was 54 degrees and drizzling a bit - not ideal weather, but i figured it was a good way to practice for race day, since there’s no guarantee of good weather. i bundled up (tshirt, sweater, raincoat, gloves, hat, the whole kit and caboodle) and headed out, up the west side highway.  i ran the furthest north i have run before - all the way up in to the cloisters- and back.  

the run felt good.  miles 1-6 were easy, 7-13 felt harder than they should have. 14-17 felt so so, and then mile 18-20 felt way easier than they should have.  i even had negative splits starting around mile 16, which i was pretty surprised about.  i think with the crappy weather and the cooler temps, i started out at a bit of a slower pace to see how my body would react.  i kept it slow and steady, and by the end i still had a little more juice.  this is good, and what i hope i can do on race day.  pace myself well enough that a)dont die and b) feel strong at the end.

i havent decided the rest of my training schedule yet, i still need to take a closer look at the calendar, but im definitely going to do 1 more 20 miler, if not 2 (but that might be a bit ambitious).