Yuck.

Yep...  in a word...   Yuck sums up my long run this morning.  I skipped my long run yesterday as the weather was atrocious in Narragansett, but there was no option to skip it today.  I woke up this morning to a weather forecast of rain, winds at 20-30mph, and cold.  Joy.  Fortunately for me I'd arranged to run the 13 miles this morning with Nancy.  Thank goodness for training partners.  Days like today are hard to get out the door without the pressure of knowing you have to meet someone at a certain time.

It rained through our entire run today.  I actually like running in the rain, but today I was not such a fan.  I was cold for most of the run today.  I wished I'd had another layer on.  The wind was not as bad as forecasted, but it was enough to blow the rain into your face and make the day that much more annoying.  Fortunately our run involved a few loops around Lincoln woods today and the trees provided quite a bit of shelter from the wind at least.  But it was still not fun.

I knew we were both suffering a bit around 7 miles in when we both just got really quiet and slogged our way through the rest of the run.  Right around mile 10 we were forced to run though a giant puddle which did a nice job of getting any remaining dry spots on my shoes and socks completely soaked.  At that point I just stopped avoiding puddles.  There was no point.

Finally we reached the end of the run.  We averaged 9'07s in the end and my legs seemed to have recovered well from the hard effort on Saturday so that was nice.  The extra day off on Sunday certainly didn't hurt either!  Days like today make a hot shower and a fresh pot of coffee feel spectacular.  In the end it was a good run and I'm very glad I got it in.  But in the middle of it I was just not enjoying myself today.  But as I always say...  its days like today that make you appreciate the good days even more.  Not every workout can be fabulous.  Ok...  time for me to start the chaos that is my life this week.  Way too much going on, a TON of work to do, and not enough time to do it in.  Thats ok though...   despite today's run I have an overwhelmingly positive sense of things to come.  I think some good things are on the horizon.  The more I think about the FIRM half the more I know I'm going to kicks its ass and have an AWESOME race.  When I did my first marathon I read up a lot on positive thinking and affirmations.  Essentially convincing yourself your going to have a great race by saying it out loud to yourself over and over again.  In that case it felt like work to do that, and I had to concentrate on telling myself that.  However in the case of the FIRM I just feel so well prepared and trained that I honestly truly believe what I'm telling myself.  I KNOW I'm going to have a great day.  No matter what happens its going to be a great day.  I can't wait.  The anticipation is killing me.  Three weeks to go.  I just might go insane once I get into the taper.  I might be a little unbearable in that time frame!  So heads up!