My first big run.

Last week on Saturday my friend Jamie posted on her facebook that she had just ran 18 miles in preparation for a marathon.  For some strange reason I commented on her post saying:

"Your crazy! The next time you want to run 18 miles I'll go with you..."  

The following Saturday rolls around and I find myself out at Golden Gardens in Ballard at 9:30am getting ready to run 15 miles.  My main goal was to just finish the run not really knowing how to gauge my ability for that kind of distance.  I have never ran anything over 5 miles and those runs usually have been with a group of guys whose ability is well beyond mine where we ran around a 7min./mile pace with hills. 

We started out at a nice speed and maintained around a 9:30 min./mile pace.  The first half we pushed all the way through only stopping for crosswalks and I felt great.  Then on the last mile and a half I decided to open it up and run.  I didn't have any fancy way to measure my pace but I probably ran that last little bit at a 7 min./mile pace and it felt great.   I thought at the end of it all I would have died and my legs would have fallen apart but I'm still walking.

In conclusion to the run Jamie made the two of us a big batch of creeps.  Not really knowing how many I ate, we measured my creep consumption by noticing that I had enough to eat half stick of butter, while leaving about four for her. (that's all she wanted.)


All I'm trying to say is, I think I'm ready for a half marathon...

Here's the route we took there and back:  

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