20 miles on a Monday??

Around 3pm on Sunday, we got a (recorded) call from the superintendent, saying the first day of school wouldn't be happening on Monday. 

Naturally, my mind immediately started revamping my training schedule. I had a 20 miler planned for Saturday, when I was in Rochester, visiting my family. It's going to be a busy weekend to start with - my ten year high school reunion on Saturday, and driving to another city (2 hours away) for my friend's wedding on Sunday. So, naturally I wasn't thrilled about taking another four hours away from seeing the fam to do my run - with school being canceled, I decided to knock it out today.

One of my favorite places to run is the NCR trail, a long, paved trail that's nice and shaded. My only run there since last summer was a half marathon in April, and according to Facebook, it was runnable - score.

This was a training run of firsts. It was my first long run on a Monday. I got sucked in to watching the VMAs last night for the LAME Hunger Games preview, so I didn't even wake up until 7:30 this morning, and didn't start running until 9:30 - by far the latest long run ever! 

Leaving for a long run in the daylight - craziness!

It was also my longest run all alone - even with all the training I've done to run 2 marathons, and 2 ultramarathons, I've never run more than 17 miles alone. My only companion was my Garmin, which I nearly forgot and had to go back for!

20 miles without a Garmin? Hell no!

I'm so used to running with my running group and/or my friends, so it actually felt weird to be able to set my own pace! It was kind of nice not to have to try to keep up with anyone or have people telling me to slow down.

Of course, I wasn't completely alone, I made a killer playlist last night. My headphones were on their last leg, so I randomly grabbed the pair that came with the ipod, that had never been used, and threw them in my camelbak before I left.

The trail was in good shape, although my run did include some high jumps and some limbo opportunities.

 

 

Then sometimes the trail turned in to this.

 A nice older couple on bikes warned me that this was poison ivy, right before I climbed over it!

I was looking for leaves of three, WTF is this hairy vine?

At mile 10.5 my headphones died completely, and I was thrilled to have a backup pair. I run without music more often than not, but the last 9 miles of a 20 mile run to the sound of the birds wasn't doing it for me.

Somewhere in mile 13 I stopped to refill my water and use the (real, flushing) bathroom. First of all, the water fountains were turned off, so I had to trust some random old guy on a bike who told me that this would provide me with safe drinking water.

 When I took off my camelbak to fill it, the entire back pouch was hanging open. Empty. Which meant my phone and my inhaler were somewhere behind me on the trail. Awesome.

I stood around indecisively for a few minutes trying to come up with a plan. There was a three mile span I could have lost my phone on. The trail only has car access every five miles or so, meaning there was no real way to check for it other than covering three miles, out and back (aka six miles) on foot. 

I considered running back to where I'd gotten the headphones out, then heading back towards the trailhead, and just calling Eric to come pick me up at the nearest parking lot whenever I hit 20. IF I found the phone. If I didn't, I'd be stuck running an entire marathon to get back to the car.

I said goodbye to the phone. I was not about to run a marathon today, nor was I about to run 20 miles, then walk six miles scouring the ground for the phone, or come back with my bike and try to find it while I rode. I'd just have to activate my old phone, and upgrade to another smart phone next time I was eligible. In a year. I'd be way more productive without it, anyway.

 As I ran on, I started thinking that maybe someone would pick it up, and call some contacts. I have yet to meet or see anyone on the NCR who isn't super nice, so I felt pretty convinced that I'd be going to pick it up at someone's house tonight or tomorrow.

As I got to 17.65 miles, and was starting to feel pretty tired, I saw this guy riding towards me!

 At first I thought maybe he was just out on a ride, but then he told me that I lost my phone. I told him I knew, and he said someone had called him, and he was riding down to meet her to pick it up! This is exactly why he's in my phone as "Husband - Eric - ICE", instead of just Eric.

 Is he the world's greatest husband or what?

So, I finished my run, as he rode the opposite way to meet the mysterious phone finder. Right after yelling that we had no power now. That makes sense, we had it throughout the hurricane, and lose it on a beautiful sunny day.

20 miles, 3:03, average pace 9:08 - pretty freaking excited about this average pace. 20 miles of that is seriously fast for me. I felt really strong for the entire run, and I actually really enjoyed myself.

I got back to my car, stretched, drank my one bottle of water and ate a banana, and admired a pretty butterfly.

 

Then waited for Eric to ride back. I was pretty tired so I laid down on the grass and relaxed.

I heard a female voice whispering my name after a little while. I jumped up and realized it was my friend from work, our school nurse, who is also a marathoner. 

Good thing I looked totally normal there.

Despite our lack of power, I was right near Wegmans, so I couldn't turn down a trip. Luckily, right after I had purchased this little treat, Eric texted to say we had power again.

It was going to a good home if we had no power, but I wanted it for myself.

Why don't I eat the oreo ice cream I bought on Friday tonight? Ya, that's gone.

We have a strict rule on not going to the grocery store hungry, so I'm not sure why I thought going after a 20 mile run was a good plan. It caused me to also end up with a jar of crack.

That's going to taste delicious on my waffles tonight.

 I need ideas - how can I thank the wonderful yoga instructor who went so far out of her way to return my phone?