Runmute

Today instead of driving my car, I ran to work!

My training plan called for 15 easy miles.  15 miles on a THURSDAY!!??  That is quite a bit of miles for a weekday.  The past few weeks, the weekday miles have really been growing - the past two Thursdays I have tun 13 miles each.  I thought about doing a double run with 6 miles in the morning and 9 miles after work but for once, running twice in one day did not sound appealing.  Then the idea popped into my head to run into work.

My work is about 10 miles from my house on non expressway roads but that still left 5 extra miles.  I began to experiment with routes and was able to add on a couple miles to make it 12 miles from home to work.  As I was making plans, I texted my running buddy.  She was pretty thrilled with my idea and since she lives very close to where I work, she decided that she would run out to meet me and finish the run with me.  I would run the first 6 miles by myself, then the next 6 with her and then drop her off at her house and add on 3 miles before heading into work.

I packed all my bags up the night before for Brian to bring into work (one of the benefits of working at the same company)and tried to go to bed early.

4:45am this morning I woke up and got ready.  I grabbed some cheddar goldfish and ate those before heading out just after 5am.  As soon as I started I knew I was overdressed for the run, but there was nothing I could do about it because I knew if I went back inside to change I would be late for my buddy meet up.

 It was super dark but thankfully since the local schools have this week off the traffic was extra light.  The miles were ticking by and I got closer and close to meeting up with my buddy.  Meeting up with her definitely helped to break the run up because I was so focused on meeting her, that I wasn't thinking about how many miles I had left to run.

Soon my running buddy appeared and we started running together.  It was great to have company and although I could tell I was tired from all the high miles, having someone to run with made everything better. 

Slowly the sun began to rise and it was beautiful!  Reds and oranges streaked the sky as we continued on, close and closer to work.  It was so different to be running after the sunrise because usually I never see it on my run this time of year.  Most of my runs are completed before 6am so this was a welcomed treat.

My buddy started to have some GI issues around mile 10.5 so I had to leave her behind and keep going since I needed to be to work on time.  The last 4.5 miles were slightly lonely and very tough.  I had packed water in my nathan hydration backpack but I didn't want to stop to take it out.  I was munching on orange GU chomps but I was just so thirsty. 

Finally, I reached the end of my miles and pulled into my work parking lot.  It was great timing because Brian drove in at the same time.  I was pretty happy to be finished with the run and pretty happy that I ran 15 miles before work.  Now I get a full 48 hours of rest before my long run Saturday and I think my legs really need it and are going to enjoy it too!

Thank goodness for work showers, that weren't that cold this time (except when someone in the men's room flushed the toilet) because I was able to dressed and working by 7:45am.  Not too bad for a long run on a Thursday morning.

I really enjoyed running to work and although it was tough to get all the logistics together, it actually worked out really well.  I hope I can start to do this more often!

Now I just have to get through the rest of the work day.  My legs are pretty tired and I can't seem to eat enough food to satisfy my starving stomach but it was worth it!