I win!

As of Friday, the forecast was looking a little nicer for Saturday, so I considered moving my long run forward instead of joining the group on Sunday. I also liked the idea of having an extra day to recover before my half marathon next weekend.

Imagine my disappointment surprise when I woke up on Saturday morning to a blanket of unexpected fresh snow. *sigh* After hemming and hawing for a while and double checking the forecast, I decided to go ahead anyway because I really liked the idea of gaining that "bonus" day to recover before the race. Sleeping in on Sunday sounded good too. :-)

I got a bit of a late start at 8:30, which I didn't mind since I hoped it would be a little warmer and sunnier later in my run. Hubs joined me for the first 8K and then sent me on my way to finish the looooong run solo!

The footing was dicey to start, with a fluffy layer of the white stuff and ice underneath - but nothing like last week! I stepped carefully and waited patiently for the sun to come out - which it eventually did! The paths started clearing immediately and I found myself picking it up gradually.

I made a quick pit stop at the car with 10K for a bottle-swap and to grab the camera.

I noticed that I was picking up the pace more and more as I drew closer to that arbitrary finish line and I was on my way to a pretty significant negative split. I had the music going, I was soaking up the fresh air and just really enjoying myself. (Almost) 22 miles is a long way to go, especially (mostly) solo, but the time and miles were ticking by much quicker than I expected.

Before I knew it, I had 5K to go and I decided to test my legs for some quicker-than-MRP splits. I nailed it: 5:12, 5:12, 5:13, 5:13, 5:03.

And done!

35.0KM (21.75mi) - 3:12:40 - 5:30/KM (8:52/mi)

 

Post-run, it was into the ice bath followed by a big green smoothie - 2 things I would not have been able to do after the run today since we had a big brunch planned right after. But don't you worry, I still showed up for the food.

 

When I woke up this morning to a ton of fresh snow (way more than yesterday), my first thought was: "I win!"  After a bit of a sleep-in, a leisurely morning and a short recovery run on the treadmill, it was off to join all of my running buddies for a fantastic spread. Hearing about everyone's run this morning, I definitely chose the right day to run this weekend. I guess this makes up for my craptacular blizzard run last Saturday.