15 miles

When running downhill becomes harder and more painful than running uphill, then you know you have had it! That was the experience in my last 3 runs of 18, 21 and 20 miles. No so today. Today was an "easy" 15. I wanted to make sure that I find it easy, so that I am not demoralized. So I chose to run the familiar Sammamish River Trail. Its flat, I have been there many times, its familiar ground. The strategy worked. For the first time I ran at a pace faster than 12, I finished my run in 2 hr 50 min as oppose to 3 hrs. I would not say it was easy. Nothing is easy beyond 13 miles. But it was not grueling or painful. I remember my first 15 mile run. After that I was almost dead, I had come home and slept whole day helucinating. This was nothing like that. I was in pretty good shape after the run, and spent rest of the day cleaning the apartment. The only nuisance throughout the run was waterbottle. I hate carrying it in my hand, and it keeps bouncing on the back.