Back: 20 on 9/24/2012

i haven't blogged in a while, since before i went to montana, over a month ago. i haven't ran much in that time either, but i have had some memorable runs. i got back from montana on a saturday and the following monday i ran 20 miles, on the road. this was the longest training run i have ever ran, and it wasn't that bad. i had been dreading it, but kept reminding myself of the marathons that i went into unprepared and i knew i had to do this, more mental than physical i think. of course i started out too fast and i ran the course where miles 2.5 to 6 are nearly all uphill with a big hill to reach mile 6. at mile 6, because i was going too fast, i started getting a side pain. i had also decided to skip my usual mile 5 refuel and to do it at mile 6 at the top of the hill. i needed that walk break. from mile 6 to mile 8 was gently rolling hills, side hurt a little, not too bad. mles 8-9.5 was pretty much all downhill, nice and refreshing. the rest of the run had some small ups and downs. at mile 13 my right foot really started hurting just behind the ball of my foot on the outside. it kept getting worse until i finished. one time i even untied my shoe to let it loosen up as much as possible, that helped very little. my final time was 3:25.07 a pace of 10:15, extremely surprising. i tried using some caffeine shot blocks on this run and did not like the taste but i was able to get them down. everything else was pretty unventful.