Long Run...Dominated

Friday night I went to bed at the early hour of 9:30pm since I was exhausted and knew I'd be up early to get in nay dominate my 18 mile long run.  I slept like a champ (as I'm still fighting off someother or another) and was up and at em at 6:45am.  After eating my breakfast and checking the weather report, I decided to crawl back in to bed.  20mph winds and getting worse as the morning/afternoon goes on?  Uh no thanks.  I got some rando-sickness to kick.  Roughly 13 1/2 hours after calling it a night, I finally crawled out of bed.  Refreshed (I would hope).

To pass the day away, I knocked out a couple of scarf orders and did some major damage on my almost full DVR.  Before I knew it the winds were dying down (only 18 mph!), and it was about time for me to do some 18 mile domination!

When I first started the run, it was hard.  I was half a mile in and was already counting down to being done.  That, is sooooooooo not awesome for a long run.  17.5 miles left!  Keep being positive/kill me now, and do it gently please.  Somewhere around the 2-3 mark I got in to a groove and my sorta mad stomach took a chill pill.  It was going so well that I didn't want to pause to take my GU at 4.5 miles.  But I did, and did so uber fast.  (I hate taking GUs while running unless I have to, say, in a race.  I usually try to take them super fast when I have to refill a water bottle or something).  As soon as I started up again my stomach was mad.  Again it took about a mile for it to feel normal again.

The great news is that I was going at a fairly quick clip for my long run, and it didn't feel taxing at all.  To be honest, I 100% expected to crash and burn as is my modus operandi for the 18 miler.  "The curse of 18."  The run was slightly boring because no one was out on the bike trails.  I tried really hard to find the cute boy with the purse puppy but he was nowhere to be found. :(  I turned around at 7.5 miles because the trail was under construction.  It actually worked out pretty well because I knew I'd have to do at least a few miles after dark and knew that Aaron would yell at me if I was doing them on the trail.  :)

I took another GU at mile 9 and filled up my water bottle.  Again my stomach was gross feeling for about a mile after stopping, but the second half of miles on the trail flew by.  Once it started to get dark I took to the sidewalks for the remaining 3 miles.  Of course one of these miles has a hill.  Nothing major, but basically a mountain to me.  This was my only split that was over 9:23 pace, so win as far as I'm concerned.  The entire long run was phenomenal, except the last mile was a bit of a struggle to maintain a low 9 minute pace.  If I had been running farther than 18 I would've sucked back another GU to combat it.
1. 9:18

2. 9:11
3. 9:23
4. 9:18
5. 9:21
6. 9:26
7. 9:12
8. 8:58
9. 9:03
10. 9:08
11. 9:05
12. 9:15
13. 9:15
14. 9:06
15. 9:31 (hill)
16. 9:06
17. 8:59
18. 9:09
I did 18 miles in 2:45:44 for a pace of 9:12.  My previous attempts had been 2:48 and 2:53.  Yippee skippy!  I'd say this constitutes as an 18 mile LR domination. :p
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