to market

With 6 weeks to go before Ridge to Bridge, I tackled an 18 mile run yesterday morning. To date, my long runs have been treadmill-bound affairs including hours of bad tv. Not so yesterday.

Now, Saturday mornings are frequently reserved for visits to the Durham Farmer's Market, but my 3 hour run was not going to fit well with that itinerary. I was ok with missing out on the market, and I am pretty sure my husband was kidding when he suggested I just run there from our house, but the idea had been planted. I google-mapped several ways this could be accomplished and the best route turned out to be almost exactly 18 miles.

"Is there a reason NOT to do this?" I asked aloud. Ignoring the obvious answers to this question (each of which he did tick off - running on 55 mph roads, running past the prison, running through the hood, etc.), I planned to make this little endeavor a reality. I left the house at 7:30(ish) all geared up with compression tights, tech shirt, strategically applied Bodyglide, gps watch, ipod, road id, shot bloks, chap stick, water bottle, cell phone, extra band-aid and $2 cash for incidental emergency items. The plan was for husband to go ahead and do the farmer's market rounds at the normal time and watch his phone for a text to meet up and give me a ride home.

Miraculously, it all went as planned. Almost. The only small glitch was that the rail-trail that I had planned to use for the last 2 miles through downtown Durham either is not actually finished or just has really crappy signage. So, a small detour landed me not very close to the market when the GPS watch hit 18.0. No worries. I texted and used the extra walk to stretch my overworked legs. My husband had perfect timing, picking me up just a couple of blocks shy of the market itself to give me a lift home. The iced water bottle and Birkenstocks I had planted in the car before leaving the house turned out to be the best part of the entire plan.

No injuries other than the regular chaffing (gee thanks, Bodyglide), only one live snake to step around, only one driver that intentionally tried to hit me (and missed, haha!) and a very quick 3 hour run checked off on the training schedule - at target marathon pace, to boot!  Next week, it will likely be back to the treadmill for 19, but the market run was a nice interlude indeed.