22 miles in - 22 Celcius

SUN 10:00

-22

We set out this morning for our 22 mile run, the last longer mileage training run before race day. As per our usual luck it was cold this morning and the wind was blowing.
We have run through some pretty interesting weather in this winter training we took on, from snowing and blowing to - 30 with the windchill. No change this morning, it had been nice all week and will be again this week but today it was cold.
The first 4 miles is always the hardest in the beginning, I have not been stretching as much as I should have been and my shins were not happy when I started out, they did work themselves out but it was off to a sketchy start.

This is where we ran today, the entire City of Thunder Bay just about,

 The worst part for me was mile 14 to mile 17, we were running down Arthur St which is a long straight road with lots of traffic, exhaust and was just a long wind tunnel, I was mentally tired through these miles but at the end of this road was where we were running to and it was a path out of the wind, it was a slow go along Arthur St. As soon as we turned off of Arthur street the wind disappeared and it felt like a totally different climate almost instantly my spirits lifted.

I took 2 Advil coming up to 17 miles as my knees usually get stiff after this point, but by mile 18 I felt like I was going to be sick, I thought it could have been the Advil bouncing around my stomach and mixing with the Gels I had been taking. After a little walk it subsided and on we went.

Once we hit mile 19 for me mentally it was over  ( in a good way ), I could keep going no matter how I felt, we had come so far with so little mileage left to cover, it was our last loooong run until race day, what a great feeling.

There is a road I cannot stand to run, it drives me crazy to run it, I will do anything to avoid it and today I was able to without sacrificing our run.

 The road runs just behind the Police Station at the end is the University, it is about 1 mile long, it is a very slow gradual incline it just seems to never end.

I began the counted down 21.98....21.99...... 

My food of choice after a long run is and .

I feel not so bad after the run, not as stiff as I did after 18 miles, perhaps Advil was the ticket.

Tapering to race day starts now.

Happy Running Everyone, however long you are running for, every step means something to me and it should for you too.  Be proud of yourselves no matter what distance you are running. Enjoy the journey.