Sorry, I cant talk now, I have to get up early to run 20 miles. I'm training for an Ironman.

…..that’s what I would have said if you had called me up on Friday night. Saturday morning was my first 20 mile run on the “season” and it went pretty well. Well, it was as good as a 20 mile run can be. Our course was over in Independence, about a 40 minute drive for me. The logical way to get there for me was to take I-35 to downtown, and then jump on I-70 and head east. Well, apparently they had closed down 670 on Friday night and I couldn’t get onto 70, so I had to get off in downtown and they didn’t have a detour marked yet. So in my half-awake state, it took me a while to figure out how to get back on the interstate. Downtown is all torn up, and I ended up over on Troost before I was able to jump back on 70. It’s amazing what you see in downtown KC at 5:00 am on a Saturday….a couple of people in the middle of Broadway playing shot put with a big rock, random other drunk people walking around, etc. But anyway, I managed to make back to the interstate without getting too terribly lost or getting a rock shot putted through my window.

Kris and Marcela and I have been going early to get 2 miles in before starting with the rest of the group at 6:00. It’s a nice mental boost to be able to turn around a mile earlier than you think you should be. Court decided to cancel masters practice for the morning so she could come out and do a long run with the group. I think she just needs to permanently cancel Saturday practice so she can run with us every week! The run was on the Little Blue Trace Trail, which is crushed limestone so it’s soft, and it was pretty much completely flat. Perfect. After about 5 or 6 miles though, we got to a portion of the trail that was marked “Trail of Death”. Aaahh!! I don’t know WHAT that was all about, but there were no dead hookers, steep hills, or scary dogs that would warrant a name like Trail of Death.

It was relatively cool and overcast for the first 7-8 miles, and then the sun came out in full force. At least it wasn’t 100 degrees like it has been for the last 2 weeks, but it was still pretty darn hot. After we turned around at the 9 mile marker, things definitely started getting a little tougher for me. My hips were tightening up, my calves were getting sore, and I could feel my pinky toes blistering. Court and I decided that we both just need to have our pinky toes amputated. Its not like they serve a purpose. At some point around mile 16 or so, I think I started hallucinating because I thought a patch of sunlight was a yellow cat. Either that, or I need new contacts.

We made it back to the starting point in about 4 hours. I think we kept on pace pretty well for the first half, but I know we slowed down quite a bit the second half. And we took our time at all of the aid stations, so I’m not sure exactly how much running time it was. But all in all, I felt a LOT better than I did for my 20 mile run when I was training for Lincoln, and I’m actually pretty excited to know that I have another 20 miler and a 22 miler coming up. I’ll be going into IMFL feeling even more prepared for the marathon portion than I was at Lincoln, and I anticipate that I’ll even be able to break my Lincoln time. We’ll see.

After we ran we stopped at Chipotle and stuffed ourselves with a couple of 1100 calorie burritos and then I headed home. I would have liked to have just laid around on the couch the rest of the day, but I did have a few errands to run. I dropped off a deposit check for Erin at the apartment she’s going to be living in (she moves back in 2 weeks! Yay!) and then stopped at Target to pick a few things up. As you can probably imagine, running 20 miles makes me a bit cranky. Well, it at least makes me a little less tolerant than normal, and I am not that tolerant to begin with. This little trip to Target just about gave me an aneurism. First off, they didn’t have the flavor of air freshener that I wanted, so I had to settle for something different. Then, while I was trying to find some SOS pads, I kept getting my cart run into by these 2 little girls who’s mom had decided it was a cute idea to let them push the cart around. Whenever they would hit something (or someone), she would just say in her sugary sweet mom voice “no, no! Watch out for people!” I felt like running over HER feet. THEN, as I’m walking around with what must have been a pissed off look on my face, one of the employees comes up and asks if I’m doing ok. Well, no, my fucking feet and legs are killing me, but where are the damn SOS pads? She starts walking me over to the aisle with the dish cleaning stuff (where I had been, and stared at the shelves for a good 5 minutes) and another sales lady overheard us and said “we don’t carry SOS pads”. WTF?! What kind of Target is this?!?! I didn’t get mad though, because both of the sales ladies were talking about how it’s totally ridiculous that they don’t have them. At least I wasn’t the only one who saw a problem with it. So I finished my shopping, got hit by the brats pushing the cart around again, and left.

On my way home, I stopped at the bank to deposit a check. I tried it 3 times, and kept getting a “we can’t complete your transaction” message. What?! Piece of shit ATM, I drove around to the second one they had at the bank and the same thing happened. UGH!! So I left there in a huff and drove to another Bank of America. I had just tossed my crap on the seat, and when I reached over to get my ATM card, I realized it was the wrong card. It wasn’t even a bank card, it was a credit card. Oh. I guess that’s why it wouldn’t work at the other branch.

On tap for this week, more swimming biking and running, and only a 10 mile long run on Saturday. Woohoo!

And congrats to all those that did IMLOU on Saturday! I can’t wait to read race reports. I was jealous all weekend long thinking about how some people were actually getting to do their Iroman and I still have 10 weeks until mine.