Boo yah. My longest run of the summer today and I feel really good (perhaps that has something to do with the donut I am eating!) I love the run I did to hit the miles too, it was my first 13+ mile run two years ago when I was training for the Portland Marathon. It hits three of my favorite places to run in the area. First I headed up to the volcano, Mt. Tabor, ran to the top and did the circle at the peak (can I really call it a peak? Probably not.) then I meander my way down. Next up is Larelhurst Park, about 3 miles away. I used to live really close to it and would run the park quite a bit, I love the way it smells there. Next up is the run back to the Reed canyon, had a little altercation with some cyclists who weren’t obserbing the rules of the road (or me for that matter), gave them an earful. Once I hit th canyon it started to rain which was a really refreshing end to my run. About 3/4s of the way through the canyon I hit 13.1 miles or a half-marathon distance. I have been aiming at running a sub 2 hr. half. So I check my watch to see where I was time wise 1:54:50 (YES!) Next came the hard rain which hit when I was under a dense tree canopy in the east end. The noise was amazing and I took my headphones off to enjoy it. After stopping my watch to walk/climb the stairs out of the canyon, I continued for the last mile passing a group of 20 people at our local park who must have been some sort of club as they all had little minature dogs, odd site. Being tired from the long run makes you think you aren’t seeing things correctly and I had to question whether or not I was seeing such a heard of toy poodles, but I believe they really were all there. I got hoe 10 minutes after I hit the half-marathon mark and added the extra miles. It was a great run and brought me up to 38 for the week, another 2008 PR. I checked my marathon splits from 2 years ago and I hit 13.1 at 2:05, so I was beating that mark by 10 mins. Of course that didn’t take into consideration my late start to the marathon cause I was in the bathroom. No we were timed with sensors so they knew just when we left, but I got stuck behind so many slow people and walkers that my first 5 miles were pretty slow (and zig-zaggy.)

I brought a gel with me and ate it at the top of Tabor. This was probably too early (less than 5 miles into it) and I could have used another. Next time I’ll either bring 2, or wait. I tried a new brand (for me), the Powerbar double-latte. It was good and gave me a caffiene boost, but it was a little sickeningly sweet (then again most gels are.)