12 Miles in the Books....and Weekend Plans

With the Capital City Half Marathon next Saturday and not that many long runs under my belt, I knew I had to get in a solid 12 mile run this morning. I started running from our place and headed to the Heritage Rail Trail which is 1.5 miles away. I jumped on the trail at one of the trail heads and headed another 2.5 miles to the start of the trail to meet Todd. The plan was for me to run 4 miles by myself then meet Todd and we would run another 8 miles together.

The beginning of the Heritage Rail Trail

Rounding the corner to meet Todd
Finishing up 4 miles by myself

I finished my 4 miles in 8:03 pace and was ready to run another 8 miles with Todd. We turned around and headed back down the path where I had just come. We ran the next 4 miles very evenly paced and the miles were all clicking off right around 8:30 pace. Once we hit our next turnaround, we headed back to the start of the trail. We didn't notice a tailwind when we headed out but wow, on the way back, the wind seemed strong at some points and our pace definitely slowed down to about 8:50. I knew Todd was getting tired and he told me with one mile to go to push myself to the finish. I was happy to do that because I wanted to see if I could pick up the pace with tired legs. I ran the last mile in 7:48 pace and finished 12 miles in 8:23 pace. I was pleased with this especially since this was the farthest I'd run since the Columbus Marathon in October.

Todd & I after running 12 miles (me) & 8 miles (Todd)

Our plans for the rest of the weekend include making beer, hopefully unpacking the rest of our place, going on a date tonight, and going to see Mary Poppins at the Ohio Theatre tomorrow evening.

Grinding grain for the beer (with wet hair)
It's hard work!