16 miles & High School…this time, it’s not a musical…. :0)

I love the routes that our running coach creates for us!  They take us all along the downtown area of my hometown!  Yesterday, our run took us by my old high school!  I have only run by there maybe 2 times in the past so this was kind of exciting and fun for me!  I attended a Private Christian School my entire school life.  Only 3 of those years were spent elsewhere when we lived in a town about an hour away.  So for K-4th, then 8th-Senior Year, I attended the same school! :0) 

So imagine my surprise when I approached this while running:

My high school!

It was in high school (my junior year actually) that I discovered my love for running.  I have no idea what compelled me to join the cross country team, but I did and that’s where it all began!

This is where it all began, folks.  Right here on this very sidewalk!  Four times around the school equaled a mile.  Every day after school, we would run this route 8 times…sometimes 10 or 12 times depending on what our coach instructed us to do.

 

My high school gymnasium is another place where I ran some training runs.  My senior year, I pretty much did my training runs on my own. If it was raining outside or extremely cold, I would run laps around the outside of the gym.  That’s where I became nicknamed “the runner” by members of the boys basketball team! :0)  I think 8 times around the hallway made a mile. You can imagine the numbers I had to keep track of while running!  This was the days before I even knew about anything about electronic  mile trackers!   :0) 

Speaking of beautiful things, this run also brought me by my most favorite place to run!

The Lake!  I’ve blogged about this route before because it is just incredibly beautiful!  I love running here!  It’s especially beautiful at sunrise!! :0)

I guess I started this off backwards but oh well!  When I started my run, it was 37 degrees outside!  37 degrees with humidity = FREEZING!  I had a long sleeve shirt with an under shirt, gloves, a warm hat, tights, and shorts on!  I kept it all on the entire run, too!

  

SO not used to this here!  I’m glad it’s cooling off, I’m just not used to it!

Did I mention this run was 16 miles?  I didn’t! 

Yes that is right!  This training run was a 16 mile one and that makes my longest run to date!  I ran the first 8 with friends and felt great. They all finished after 8 miles and we went our separate ways…they went home, and I hit the course again! 

I had my iPhone with me so I listened to music while I ran.  It was incredibly refreshing to run alone but I missed the company at the same time. 

I did great…I kept a great pace, the weather felt good, I really enjoyed myself.  Those last two miles though were HARD.  I guess I didn’t take GU at the right time (I waited too long) and I paid for it in the end!  I didn’t feel like I was about to die or like I had hit “the wall” or anything, but my entire lower body ACHED…..and I just wanted to be done.  I made myself run them, though and I finished the entire run in about 3 hours!   I hardly walked at all during the entire 16 miles!  That’s really good for me!!!  I felt very accomplished and I got to take a picture with the 16 mile cone….I’ll have to post that once they get it up on our group website! :0)

   

I convinced my mom to come out and do our local Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning with me!  Hehe! :0)

I missed the group seminar and I was kinda upset about that. Our coach discussed the night before the Marathon and what to do the week before, etc.

She had a good idea about the race.  She suggested making a pace band, dedicating each mile to someone special!  How cool of an idea is that?!  Just a little something to keep you motivated while running 26 miles!!! :0)

I’m not sore today like I thought I would be…I do have one area in my lower left leg that is sore but that’s it!  Yay!!!

Hope you had a fabulous weekend and a great World Running Day! I didn’t run today because it’s a rest day but I sure did think about everyone who was running!