Location:  All over Bear Creek Park
Distance: 14.66
Average pace: 11:32
Average Heart Rate: 169

Ack, I'm behind on my running logs!

First of all, I didn't upload my Garmin data to the web, so I don't have the supercool Google map that Garmin creates.  I'll post it tonight, because it shows the crazy, meandering route I took on Saturday. God bless GPS!

Saturday's run was my longest so far.  At the end, I felt better than I thought I would, though it took me a looooong time to finish.  

My warmup was my best so far - by that, I mean I didn't struggle through the first mile to find my "rhythm".  Within 5 minutes, I was feeling good and very energetic…kind of surprising.  After silly walks, Steeeve gave us the route.  My plan was to run the first portion with the SMARTlite folks because of pacing, then break off to add extra miles for the full SMART 16 miles.   So, I followed Barb, et al through the Ryka Loop to the Picnic Loop, then headed off towards the Soccer Loop.  By the end of the 2nd soccer loop, I was 5 miles in and still feeling surprisingly good - proof that all this training is doing some good.  

After the 2nd Soccer Loop, I started looking for the turnoff back to the Picnic Loop.  I headed back towards Clay, and turned onto a street that looked familiar……but it was a dead end.  So, completely lost, I took the Clay Rd route back to the Park.  I had wanted to avoid this route, since it's on a busy street and has very little shade.  This stretch was the most difficult part of the run for me. 

Returning to the Park, I was at 10 miles.  I returned to the shade of Schultz Loop, and immediately felt better. So, here is where I started getting creative with my route.  I wanted to maximize my mileage along the loops surrounding Pavillion 6, so I did a lot of backtracking. 

Starting around mile 12-13, I started to feel the miles in my legs.  It was also during that 1 mile that I felt my energy starting to drain out, and the Gu wasn't helping.  I guess my glycogen levels were nearing zero at this point, so my body was starting to whine, "are we therrrre yet??" 

As I made my last Ryka Loop, I saw Ann, Barb and Steeeve pull up in their cars.  I had lost everyone several miles back, since I improvised my own routes at the end (and also cuz I'm slllooooowww).   They had come through looking for me, and to give info about breakfast.  I really appreciated them checking on me - honestly, I assumed everyone had already left, since I was taking a reaaalllly long time.  But even though I was fine (and felt bad that they were all waiting for me), it's really nice to know the Striders account for everyone.  Yay Striders!!  

That afternoon, I took a 5 hour nap.  FIVE HOURS.