12 Mile Spanking

I'm really over the weather in the Midwest right now. So. Over. It. Saturday was my day off this week, due to fun with car dealerships and studying for the GRE. And, I had a 12 miler scheduled with the ladies for Sunday.

Well, the forecast was looking like snow. Again. Because one of the ladies had to work during the day on Sunday, we weren't going to run until 2:30 ish. I think that's a bit late, but it's not like the summer when the heat and humidity are beating down on you. I figured it'd be fine. Might be a snowy run, but still, not so bad.

Well, I woke up Sunday morning to find that everyone, for various reasons, was going to bail on the run. Judy said she'd still do, but that we should start earlier. We agreed on 10 AM. Then I looked outside. It was raining and cold. Le sigh. Judy then called saying that she did not want another cold, rainy run, which is completely understandable. I told her that I'd probably do 6 miles and then call it a day. Looks like I was going to be doing 12 miles in the Cleveland Metroparks. With the hills!

So, I ate my bagel with peanut butter, had a cup of tea, and got suited-up for another crappy weather day. However, when I finally made it outside, the sun was shining...with a little bit of drizzle. I decided that I'd run my loop North, and when I returned to Irving Park, I could decide to keep going for a full 12 or stop early for 6. Either way, I was on my own.

The trip North-bound was terrible...the wind was pounding me so badly that I had to keep my mouth wide-open just to be able to breath. When I was on the path closest to the water (the dirt path, just South of Foster), the wind was so forceful that I all of a sudden found my self in the Lake Mich Splash-Zone. But I kept going, and when I finally returned to Irving Park, I decided to keep going and get my full 12 miles in.

As a happy coincidence, I found Judy about 6 miles into the run. She had decided to go out and get 6 ish miles as well. I told her I was going for the full 12 and was about halfway through. She said she'd accompany me for 3 miles. We made it to the North Avenue bridge before turning around, right back into the wind. It was so strong that it slowed our paces from 9:40 to 9:55 per mile.

I'm happy either way, because that's the fastest I've been able to run 12 miles!

Judy departed when we neared her exit at Diversey, and I pushed on, going for the strong finish. But literally, as soon as I hit 12 miles, I stopped moving. Stopped the Garmin. Stopped running. Just stopped altogether.

Okay, well I kept walking because I was about .25 miles from home. But no more running into the wind for me! I'm hoping the weather improves soon because it is April. I'm officially allowed to bitch about the weather being bad because it's not February anymore. There's NO excuse for snow on the ground!!!

So next week I'll do about 10 miles in the wilds of Cleveland.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my Sunday run. I did most of it alone, and it felt pretty good too. Not to mention that I kept it under 10:00 for the whole time.

I decided against trying to fit in two runs today, so I slept in this morning and have a hill workout on the books for this evening.