16-miler

Had a surprisingly good 16-mile run this morning. We did all the right things -- had a light breakfast, then lay around while it settled, then got up, made Powerade, grabbed Hammer Gels, and headed out the door. Because today's Seattle Marathon crossed part of our usual downtown run, we decided to do a simple out and back on the Burke-Gilman Trail. This had the added benefit of keeping us near bus lines if the weather turned, if my quad couldn't take it, or whatever.

Wil kept a nice, even slow pace the whole time -- unlike me, who kept getting distracted and then running into the back of him. Sorry baby! The trail was pretty empty, just a handful of runners and cyclists out in the gray misty morning. It was really quite beautiful out there -- damp black asphalt and luminous yellow leaves, nearly as bright as the rain jackets most of the cyclists were wearing.

The run was so easy that there's not much else to report really -- we just ran slow and steady. A perfect Long Slow Distance run. It was only afterward that Wil pointed out that it's one of the longest runs we've ever done. We've done half marathon distance 6 or 7 times, which makes it relatively easy for us. But once you get above 14, we haven't done that many runs, really. Looking back at our training log from last year, we did a 14, a 16, and an 18 before getting snowed in. So that puts today's 16-miler in a tie for our third longest run EVER. Nice!