First 20 miles: success!

This morning I wrote what appeared to be a very self-deprecating post on my upcoming 20 mile long run. I was quite nervous about it: not solely about the distance, but also about being cold and miserable for three and a half hours, because it seems as though I've only warmed up from my freezing 17 mile run three weeks ago. My public proclamation was my way of psyching myself up: if I announce in public on my blog and on Facebook that I'm about to run 20 miles, it becomes an impossibility to return home without having run that distance.

So I'm happy to report a happy report. I ran 20.5 miles this morning. There wasn't much of a hurricane at all: quite a lot of horizontal rain during my first solitary 7 miles, and, by the time my running partner joined me, some very strong winds accompanied by a lot of expletives. But by the end of the run the sun had come out, which I didn't anticipate happening for at least another month.

I decided near the end of the run that I wanted to do 21 miles, so we ran past my house - not easy on the body or mind at that sort of distance - and continued onwards for another mile. It turned out that there had been a small miscalculation somewhere, and the total came to 20.5 miles, so if we hadn't run the extra mile I would have been left lacking in half a mile and feeling very despondent about it.

20.5 miles is the furthest I'll be running until I'm in Barcelona on the 16th March. For the rest of the weekend I foresee - again - a lot of sleep and a lot of chicken.

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