Perfect 20

If only every run could go as well as today's 20 miles went.  Everything just came together almost too perfectly.  The day was cool (not quite 50 degrees) but sunny, the path was busy but not too crowded, and I never hit the wall since I paced myself much better this week.  I even ended up with negative splits the last 4 miles.  Plus, no major pain other than my typical ankle and arch soreness which didn't set in until much later in the run.  Yay for better conditioning! Today did so much for my overall running confidence.  I was starting to feel a bit down from this training since I seemed to repeatedly have more "bad" runs and not overall not meeting my weekly goals (especially in the area of speedwork).  I take with good and the bad there just seemed to be a lot more bad happening which was starting to affect me more than I was letting on.  It's good to know I can do it :)

Unbeknownst to me a 50K was happening along the lakefront today as well.  At first I thought some guy had left a bib on from a previous race because normally there are signs up or the path is closed.  Then I saw a few more and was actually able to read one of the racers bibs as  I passed him.  These people seriously motivated me to finish strong.  They started before me and overall looked really strong and still going when I passed them again nearly 3 hours later.  If I was feeling pain I could only imagine what these runners felt with no crowd support and few aid stations.  

Oh and having Lady Gaga's Pokerface and Flo Rida's Low shuffle at the most perfect point helped get the booty moving too ;)  Plus my hubby met me for the last 1.5 miles.  Although he is not the best pacer as he tends to move a little too fast for me when I've already run over 18 miles he kept me moving.  See everything just fell into place so fantastically today!  Now it's nap time then dinner with friends (Indian food - yummy!  Their first experience so I'm excited for them!)  I'm treating myself to the large Kingfisher beer tonight :)