It's all about our butts

What a difference a week makes. Here it is about two hours after my long run and I still feel great. It's been far too long since I've felt this good during and after a long run. Looking back on last weekend, I could not have been more miserable. I hate to sound like such a wuss, but the weather really does have a profound impact on how well I run (and, more to the point, how good I feel during the run).

This morning I met Amy at Lloyd Hall to do 12 - the last long run before PDR. I was uncharacteristically a few minutes late because I could not find my shoes - very distressing, but I found them in a closet where they were not supposed to be. I blame others (Seebo), though it was likely my own doing. Amy and I were both looking fabulous in our skorts - two redheads in running skorts, how cute are we? I'll get to that in a minute. We set out at an easy pace and easily filled the first few miles with idle running banter. The weather was amazing and we both commented on how nice it was to run and what a contrast it was to what we've been dealing with the last several weeks.

Crossing over the Falls Point brigde I think we were both feeling good. As we approached the 6 mile turnaround point, I suggested that we run until the next quarter mile mark and turn around there so we could get in our 12 miles and have a half mile to walk and cool down. Amy agreed to my brilliant plan, naturally. After the turn around, about half mile from Falls Point bridge, we stopped to sip from the water fountain. As Amy did so, I took the opportunity to admire her new skort (which, thankfully was not chafing her - an ongoing problem for poor Amy)and tell her that her butt looked nice in it - which it does. When it was my turn for a sip at the fountain, Amy checked mine out and confirmed that my butt looked good in a skort too. This was satisfactory news for both of us, so we continued on our run.

Throughout much of the run, we were sustaining nearly perfect 9 minute miles. The pace felt good, not too fast, but not slow. I was tentatively allowing myself to feel excited for how good I continued to feel as the miles passed. I can only pray that I'll feel this good on race day. Sub two hours will be no biggie if I do. Somewhere around mile 10, we passed a couple of guys and Amy wondered aloud, "Do you think they're checking out our butts?" "Of course they are," I assured her and it was then that we agreed that it's all about our butts. Soon after that, I suggested that instead of walking in the last half mile, that we continue on with the run. Amy agreed to this, my second brilliant idea of the day. We cruised the last two miles at around 8:45 pace - feeling a little tired, but good... really good.

I neglected to metion a Seebo sighting around mile 3 of our run this morning. I had mentioned to Amy that we might see him whizzing past. We guessed (hoped) that he would likely be shirtless - since he tends to dress sparsely even through the winter months. We were surprised (disappointed) to see that he was not. Even more disappointing was that he totally dissed me for a passing-by-hand-slap. Totally left me hanging. Yeah, that's right, cute redhead in the skort (2 of 'em actually)... totally left hanging. Not cool. Made me scratch my head - to think, just last week I had a random fellow runner (male, of course) offer me some Vaseline for my chaffed areas and I can't even get a high five from my Seebo. Hmmm.

All in all, a great run... better than I've had in ages. Thank god for Amy - she is a wonderful running partner and friend. Look for us in our cute skorts at the PDR! 12.5 in 1 hr, 52 min, 20 sec.