20 friggin miles

So I did it. No no no. Not the a whole marathon. But 20 miles. This was last Saturday, October 8th.
It was a perfect day in Santa Monica. Not too hot, a little overcast and the first eight miles were running along the beach. It doesn't get more perfect than that, unless of course I am running the full 26 in Honolulu.

I was really nervous going into Saturday. I mean, I hadn't done a long run since August when I did the 16miler in SF and my ITBand problems started. Was I too out of shape? Would my leg be killing me? All of these worries when I woke up at 6 am.

My pace group in Santa Monica is really two pace groups; those who run really friggin fast and us who run a more reasonable 10 minute mile pace. The slower group was my pace group. As I said, I only ran a 9 minute mile for the 10k. I ain't running a 9minute yet for all 20miles. Running with this group was really nice because we stayed together till the bitter end. Toward the end a couple of people were getting tired and getting leg cramps. Rather then leave them, we slowed our pace and stayed together. Sure it was gonna take a little longer, but it was more fun hanging together. That whole community thing. My total time for 20 miles was 3h40min with a lot of walking for the last 2 miles. While I could have finished a lot faster it was worth it to hang out with the others. There are a few gay guys in my pace group, The guy with the leg cramps kept saying, "no. no. Go on ahead. I'll be fine. Leave me" Nick looked back at him and said, "oh. Quit being so straight!" too funny. All in al I still felt really strong at the end of the run. I think I could have easily run the whole 26. The next day my legs were tight but a little stretching took care of that.

The route was very similar to the route we ran for our 12 mile run, so it was like old times. Especially the two mile stretch of slight up hill. You don't notice it normally, but Montana Blvd is really a pain. But anyway... Along the route we had to do a little pit stop at the starbucks. Heading in there I was surprised to see one of my coworkers at Sony imageworks. I said hi, he invited me to join him, but I had to say no. He thought I was crazy when I told him that I couldn't because I still had a nother 10 miles to run. He went back to his capucccino. and I kept running.