20 Miles Done

I suppose I should do a quick blog post so everyone (the 2 people that might read this) will be reassured that I didn't stay in Boston 4 months ago! I will eventually get caught up, maybe, but for now I'll share the craziness of today. Today started bright and early at 4:30 am for a crazy 20 mile run. Steph and I are training for the San Francisco Nike Women's Marathon in October. We ended up getting spots in the Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon today so we got on the first bus, used the honey buckets and started running up the canyon. We made it .75 of a mile up and felt a little nervous so we turned around and headed down. People thought we were nuts and were telling us we were running the wrong way. We did 5.5 miles, then started the race. It was nice to not feel the need to race we were just doing our long run and needed to take it nice and easy. Once we finished we went and ran the last mile and a half then got our Truemoo chocolate milk, stretched a bit, then headed home for a lovely soak in an ice bath.  It was a beautiful day and a really great run. As I was running I was thinking how grateful I am to have such a close friend to run with and talk to, it makes the miles fly by and helps our friendship grow. When I trained for my 1st marathon 3 years ago I ran by myself with no garmin or iPod on all of my training runs,  that's just too much time in my own head! It was at that marathon that I met Steph and ran 18 miles of the race with her and got to know her.  Since then we have ran many, many miles and races together. We've laughed, cried, been silly, and solved the problems of the world ;) together. I know I wouldn't have love for running and appreciate it as much as I do without my strong, silly, little running buddy!