12 Miles, 36*. What could possibly go wrong?

7:30am when my alarm clock went off, might as well have been 5:30am.  Why is it so early? I had 12 miles on the plan today.  It was 36* when I checked.  What do I wear for this?  I kept having this internal conversation of, seriously - it will be warm when you're running.  I wound up in wool socks, a light pair of pants, t shirt and long sleeve shirt.  It was warm when I was running in the sun but pleasantly so and not like I was going to pass out.

745 - out the door.  I was doing a Ft Snelling run, made slightly longer by taking "long cuts" and adding some stuff at the end.  I brought my headphones along but started with not listening to them.  This is also only the second run this year where I wore a fuel belt instead of my Cambelbak bag which meant I could take both gatorade and water along.

Miles 1, 2 and 3 Oh seriously!  Already?  This is what happens.  I wake up, I go through the normal getting ready routine, I think I'm good.  Then a mile from my house, just starting into the run I have to poo.  Awesome.  I prayed for peace with the Minneapolis Park Board who maintains facilities over parts of my route.  The facilities are always hit and miss, sometimes being clean and well stocked.  Sometimes they're not well stocked or the door is locked or the thing is turned so you can't open the door or any other kind of nonsense imaginable.  Today was fine.

Minnehaha Falls and the park Per tradition, I was running by Minnehaha Falls as the Women Run the Cities race was starting.  That explains all the cars and the people.  Their race goes from the falls north up the river so we were never really in each others way.  One of the cyclists told me I was running the wrong direction but I knew he was joking and thought it was funny.  Usually this race is the week before Twin Cities, this year its two weeks out because "the first Sunday in October" is falling as late as mathematically possible this year.

Ft Snelling State Park - Down  I love this part of the run.  There was a tree blocking part of the path, it must've fallen recently.  Nothing nearly as dramatic as the time I climbed that fence during a 20-miler.  I took some Gu, had some Gatorade and generally enjoyed myself.  Did I mention the weather was gorgeous, despite the chill in the air.

Ft Snelling State Park - The Hill I took the hill without music today, possibly for the first time ever.  I was all "you'll go faster if there's no music to distract you" and I was right.  The hill is really broken into two segments - the looooong painful steep part and the little steep part at the end known as the finisher.  There's about 200' of flat in between the two parts.  Usually I run up the big part, catch my breath on the flat and run up at least half of the finisher before needing to catch my breath again.  Today, a pick up truck was on the trail coming at me as I started up the finisher.  Good, I needed another walking break.  Let me just get out of your way and stand over here.  WTF?

Ft Snelling State Park - Top side  The view along the river was tremendous as usual.  I can't tell if I'm seeing fall colors or if the trees are just burned out this year because of the drought.  I'll take a closer look and let you know when I go back next week for my 10-miler.  Still no music.  Also, the river is down.  Wow.

Minnehaha Falls - part 2.  As I mentioned I had a long sleeve shirt on.  It was bright green and kind of hard to miss.  So I was astonished when not one but two people on two separate occasions heard me coming, turned and looked at me, turned back around, stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and were startled when I almost ran into them and wanted to pass them.  I'm in bright green.  How do you not see me?  Also, how do you look at me and then forget I'm coming?  One was a racer who'd finished so she's mildly excused. 

The parkway again - I ran on the side of the road opposite where I'll be for Marathon Sunday just because for these last two weeks I try to stay off the course as much as I can.  It's a mental game.  I had gatorade and a gu and then was all "why do I feel like I just poured acid down my stomach?"  Probably important to remember that for the marathon. 

Back into the neighborhood Running Beth says I live in hill country.  While anything outside of Austin, Cincinnati and San Fransisco can't rightly be considered 'hill country' for running purposes, there are some rollers on the way back to my house that hurt more at mile 11 then they would at mile 3.  I started thinking I just want to stop and cry.  I'll never make it through a marathon if this is how I feel at mile 11.5  That was followed by the voice of reason Calm down, this is normally when you'd take water and another gu and you're not doing that so just live with the pain.  It's almost done.

Running around the block a few extra times I knew this route, long cuts and all, was still only 11.5 or so and I needed 12 miles so when I got close to my house, I ran around the block a few extra times for what I thought would equal another .5 miles for an even 12.  I have become one of those runners who runs around the block so their Garmin shows an even number at the end of the run.  I don't even own a Garmin.  (Side note - now you know what to get me for Christmas.)  I was highly encouraged when I stopped the clock at 2:30, including a poo break and that hill at Ft Snelling, that's must faster than I thought I went.  May be fairer to say that's much faster than I thought I was going at mile 11.5 when I just wanted to stop and cry.  This may be one of the more accurate readings my Nike+ thing has ever taken, it's off by about .4 miles.  Given how wrong the thing normally is, that's excellent.

Another great thing about running when it's in the 30s and 40s: no guilt about skipping the ice bath.  My arms and legs were freezing already and my skin was all red.  After the run I had a power smoothie of oats and nuts (put in the blender and grind first, then add the rest), banana, two kiwi, a plum, yogurt and chia seeds.  Apparently I have a "breakfast" date at 1pm.