The 20k

Saturday morning I had to run 20k. Not only did I have to run 20k but I had to run 20k on time to get home, stretch, ice, shower, eat and look bright-eyed and bushy tailed enough to run a training session at work at noon. On top of that I had to run 20k on a morning that was cold and damp and calling for rain an hour into my 2-hour run. Did I mention I was also kinda sore from CoreFit week one?

So I got up early and headed out the door lickity-split. I was 4k in when the first drops started falling. Even in my long sleeves I was chilled. Damn! Keep moving!! The drops stopped falling and I kept moving. I wondered if I should stop to drink and stretch around 8k. My brain answered before I could even process the question.

Don't you dare! Just keep moving. You can stop at 10k quickly to drink and stretch and check your blood sugar but we're talking like two minutes tops.

And I kept moving. At 10k I did stop. I drained my bottle knowing that Doug was meeting me at 13k with more. I checked my blood sugar which was a little low so I quickly ate some fruit chews. The drops started falling again and I was getting chilled so I picked it right up and kept moving.

At 13k Doug was nowhere to be seen but I was ahead of schedule and he had a few things to do before meeting me so I wasn't worried. I'm sure I could have just waited at the 13k mark for him but I kept moving. I wondered if I could get to 15k before he showed up. I sped up a bit as I ran down a long straight country road. My watch beeped 14k and no black car appeared on the horizon. Just as I approached 15k I saw his car at the corner. At exactly 15k he reached me.

I refilled, ate a banana, reapplied lip balm (which feels so damn good on a long run), waved goodbye and headed off for the last 5k. I was feeling the pressure of time, I was pretty chilled and I was also feeling the rain clouds gathering and wanted to beat them if I could.

I lopped along for the last 5k. I didn't stop. I didn't slow down. I just kept moving right along until my watch beeped about 500m from my front door. I turned it off, slowed to a walk and strolled home.

Suddenly it hit me. I just ran 20k. I ran it well. I ran it fast. I was so busy trying to do it that I didn't actually notice I was doing it. Does that make sense? It's like, where there is no time to stop and walk my body doesn't ask to stop and walk. It just keeps running because there really were no other options.

I ran 20k. I beat the rain storm by about 15 minutes. I didn't hurt during or after despite the CoreFit madness earlier in the week. And I got to work right on time and we had a wonderful training session.

Twenty-two kilometres this Saturday and then I will have already finished the longest runs of the training. Time flies when you're running well!