Boy oh boy, 18.6 miles down in the book, my time on my garmin was 3:02, my official time will be a few minutes more b/c I hit the potty at mile 9 and stopped my watch.

Last night I had a nice dinner of spaghetti chocked full of veggies - squash, mushrooms, olives and onions and a can of tuna thrown in for good measure. I got into bed early, but couldn't fall asleep until after 10. Boo, b/c the alarm was set for 4:45 am! However, I awoke at 4:30 and was wired so I figured I might as well get up. I turned off my alarm and tired to sneak over to G's side of the bed to turn his off (I set two when I have to get up super early) and scared the bejesus out of him! Breakfast was a PBJ sandwich and a scoop of protein powder in grapefruit juice, drank some water and a big cup of coffee and got dressed. I picked up a great new mid weights nike shirt at Second Sole yesterday (hey everyone their winter clothes are on sale big time) that had a hood and gloves built in and decided to wear it with a tank top bra top under it and my mid weight pants. The high was supposed to be 40, but the evening low was 19 so it was pretty damn cold this morning. I got on the road at 5:15 and got to Avon way to quickly. I wanted to be there by 6:30 but was there at 6, so I had an hour to sit around and get tired, which I did! My friend Kim who moved to Fairport NY recently was in town for the weekend and met me to do the 15K, that was an added bonus.

So, there was a 5K, 15K and 30K, I imagine there were only 150 runners there tops, most didn't do the 30K, it was a 2 loop course. Kim and I started off strong, we kept a pace of about 9:17 the vast majority of those first 9 miles. There were a few roads that were a steady incline that we slowed down on. The course is nothing exciting. It starts at a strip mall, then runs through a subdivision, then you have about .5 miles on a park path that happened to be horribly icy today, then back through subdivisions. Sometimes you run on pretty busy roads and they were not closed to traffic. For the first 9 it was still pretty early, so there wasn't much traffic, but the second 9 had a lot of cars blowing by. There is one stretch of road, maybe 2-3 miles that runs along the lake past some very pretty houses. So, at mile 7.5 Kim was feeling strong, so she gave it a kick and sped up. Around 8 I knew my belly wasn't happy, so I made the decision to stop at the turn around point and hit the john, which I hated to do b/c I was running with a nice pack of guys, one of which was training for ironman and they were my speed and I hated to lose them, but I am glad I stopped so I didn't have to worry about my belly the next 1.5 hours. Back on the road after a 3 min detour I plugged in my ipod and tried to zone out. The next 1.5 hours I was pretty much alone, I didn't have anyone around me and several times I thought I might be lost! I felt pretty good up until about 15 at which point I was just ready to be done already! I kept soldiering on. The wind was really kicking in and blowing across me for a good portion of the second loop, I swear it got colder! By 17 I was back on the icy path and my legs were not happy, my feet hurt and so did my knees. All of the sudden some lady came charging past me, I swear she cheated. I looked behind me several times, convinced I was in last place and this lady was no where to be found. You run up one road and then back down a parallel road that is connected by side roads, I think this chick cut down one, I really do! But anyway, once off the ice path, I got a bit of a second wind and kicked it up a notch. When I saw that strip mall I was so happy, 18.6 miles, although my garmin said 18.8. The NCN crew had a nice little spread of food, but I just had a banana and sat down to stretch. On the course I had 3 gels, mile 5, 10 and 14. The funniest thing is I got 1st place in my age group! I swear I must have been the only one in my age group doing the 30K, there's no other explaination

From there I headed home and G and I went to brunch (veggie omelet and hash browns!) and then I met Sara for a movie - the Other Boleyn Girl - it was okay.

All in all I would consider today a success. I didn't feel as strong as I would have liked, but swimming 3000 yards the day before could have played a part in that. And I did have some stomach attitude, but I feel fine now and know I'll be okay tomorrow. Getting stronger!

Ooooh and I have most definitely developed plantar fasciitis, mostly in my left foot, but in the right as well, and it can go suck my ass.