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Accidental 14 Mile Run

How does Monday roll around so quickly, but the weekend takes forever to show up? I know, rhetorical question of course.

This weekend we actually didn't have any plans. My only plan was to try to get in an 11-12 mile run on Saturday. We have a half marathon in two weeks, and I've not followed any sort of plan. I was just hoping I'd be able to feel up to doing the race period.

Thankfully, I've been feeling more human finally after this whole blood clot ordeal. I have ups and downs still, but definitely feeling better than I was a month ago. I haven't really talked much about it because still so much of a waiting game. Clot's still there, but at least I can get out and run, move, exercise, feel more normal.

Back to the long run...if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you already know that I definitely got in that long run, and then some.

Jason and I decided to wait until it warmed up a bit. Like 35 degrees. At least the sun was out, but so was the crazy wind. We were supposed to basically do an out and back. The goal was a very easy, much slower paced training run.

We headed down towards the river with the plan of following part of the river trail then turning around and heading back. We were keeping that slower pace that we both needed. So all was good. We took a brief break around mile 6-ish for GU and so I could potty (definitely not dehydrated). Then the plan for that easy run was tossed into the gusting winds.

What happened was that Jason decided he wanted to take a detour. I should have gone with my initial gut instinct of "no." But, I thought I'd just go with it. I knew it was uphill, but didn't really remember HOW uphill it was. It was over 250 feet of elevation gain.

And if that wasn't enough, they had apparently finished out paving some new trails/paths that Jason wanted to explore. He rides his bike up that horrid hill sometimes and the path always ended after 1.5 miles. Guess what, now it keeps on going. And it's uphill, of course. And we had no clue how far it went.

Now, granted, there were some awesome views of the city far below. Really and truly quite spectacular had I not been running uphill. The house seemed to be a million miles away. But after a certain point, you remember that you do have to still get back home, a million miles away. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my phone, so no pictures of the views or the random stacked rocks that someone created around the path.

Let's just say the return home was semi-surreal. I knew we had to get back somehow. We were both hurting from that upward climb, getting hungry, and tired. By the time we made it home, it was 14 miles later. So much for that easy 11-12 miler huh?
Permanent hat head & hat indention
After we both stretched a lot, we cleaned up and headed to a very late lunch/early dinner. We were hungry to say the very least. It was a sunny day, chilly, but sunny. We hit up Pizza Cafe, which does have a nicely heated patio, so we could enjoy the sunshine without the chill. Pizza + Beer = Perfect post-run re-fuel and relax time.

Do we  look exhausted?
Let's just say we slept very soundly Saturday night.

Sunday ended up being a much warmer day (hitting mid 60's by the afternoon). It was sunny and screaming for a run. Jason went down to a nearby park to fish while I headed out for a run. I ended up going 5 miles. Probably too far, but man it felt so good and was just simply a great run.

The rest of the day was spent doing lots of laundry, a few chores, and some yard work. It was hard to pass up being outside working in the yard on such a wonderfully gorgeous Sunday.

So, have you ever gotten off track and ended up running farther than intended? It might sound implausible, but accidental long runs can happen.

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