20 Miles DONE

You know it's going to be bad run when you get to the park and can't even open your car door because it's so windy. When I left my house yesterday, the forecast said sustained winds of 16 mph with gusts up to 22 mph -- but let me tell you, it was WORSE than that at the park. And the wind just got stronger and stronger as my run progressed.

But when you have to run 20 miles, what else are you going to do but run outside? So I told myself to just quit thinking about it and go, and I stayed on the inside loop of the park for the most part to keep myself somewhat sheltered. The first 14 miles or so were fine, I was actually feeling really good and even managing to keep a pretty good pace on the stretches where I was forced to run directly into the wind. The last 6 miles...well, let's just say that I'd rather not relive that experience. At some point after I'd been running for at least 2 1/2 hours, I saw another guy pull up in the parking lot and get out for a run. I was thinking, "good luck, buddy." Of course, he came cruising along and passed me, and eventually got so far ahead of me that I couldn't see him anymore. When I finally made it back to the parking lot on that loop, he was getting in his car to leave. I wanted to yell at him, "yeah, I could have run a lot faster, but I've already been out here running for THREE HOURS!!!" Clearly running straight into the wind for 1 mile out of every 3 that I was running yesterday was making me a little crazy.

The most frustrating part of the whole run yesterday was feeling afterward that if it hadn't been for the ridiculous wind, I would have had a great run. Instead of getting the heavy, aching feeling that I'd gotten in my last couple of long runs, my legs felt great the whole time. I didn't have any pain in my hip joints or nagging stomach cramps. Other than getting hit by blasts of wind that would literally stop me dead in my tracks, it was a pretty good run. And I feel surprisingly good today, with minimal soreness - not at all how I expected to feel after my first 20 mile run.

The only positive about the wind is that at least I'm prepared for it if it's windy on marathon day in OKC. I won't enjoy it any more, but I am prepared. And I am glad that I ran yesterday instead of today, when the winds are 39 mph sustained gusting to 49 mph.