16 and counting.

God is it Sunday already, where the hell are the weeks going. They seem to be flying in.
Well training this week has gone well, we got out and done our usual 3 and a half miles on Monday and Tuesday and followed that up by running from work in Blackrock to Sarah's apartment in Cork street, a run of just over 6 miles on Thursday. I have to say I really enjoyed running home from work for two reasons. Firstly it meant our run was finished by the time we got home and we could relax for the rest of the evening, as normally we struggle for well over an hour on a Dart and Luas or being stuck in rush hour traffic before getting home and getting changed then heading out for our run. To be home before we would have been if we had of travelled on public transport or driven was brilliant, but to be finished our run also was just a great feeling. Secondly, I like that fact that we were running from one place to another, it seemed more measurable that way. Although I love running in the Phoenix Park, doing laps of the same course or trying different routes doesn't give you the same sense of the distance you ran compared to running from Blackrock to Cork Street. Although it wasn't all rosy, I hate the amount of traffic in the city and trying to cross roads with cars whizzing every direction really knocked me off my stride as did having to stop at traffic lights and the constant struggle to avoid pedestrians. Having said that though, I am fairly sure it will become a regular part of our training from now on.
So to yesterday, and our plan was to get up early, have a good breakfast to fuel our run, relax for a while to give us time for our food to settle and then head out on our 16 mile training run... As I said that was our plan. It didn't exactly turn out like that though, As I got up nice and early and made my way to the local shop for some milk for our porridge, I was horrified to find as I stepped out the door that it was absolutely sweltering out, I couldn't believe it, was this the same country where only 4 days ago I was running in absolutely torrential rain and getting soaked to the skin... How could mother nature do this to me, did she not realise that I had 16 miles to run today and I had never run it before...
Anyway I continued on as planned, went home and made breakfast and woke Sarah, I greeted her with the news about the weather and she had exactly the same reaction as me..Ahhh S*&T.
We're a strange bunch us runners, while every other person in Dublin was probably thanking God for this wonderful weather and quickly trying to plan how they could make the most of it, Sarah and I sat in complete silence just looking out the window dejected at the glorious day that had presented itself.
So what to do.. We decided we would postpone our run until later, Sarah would head home and see her flatmate's friend that was over for the weekend and I would head to visit my parents and we would regroup later and hope that the Irish weather had decided to resume some sort of normality.
So we set off on our separate ways with Sarah saying she would pick me up at about 4pm.
4pm arrived as did Sarah and the heat hadn't subsided, we decided that we were just going to have to get out and do it anyway, as we both really wanted to have today off just to relax before the start of another week.
With heavy hearts we headed back to mine to get changed, Sarah driving a little slower than normal, trying to delay the inevitable.
Anyway by the time we got to the park it was just 5.30pm and thankfully the sun was ever so slowly starting to set. I was so relieved.
So we set out on the long run ahead of us. Our training had actually only called for a 15 mile run this week and I had been playing with different routes on Gmap all week to try and find a 15 mile route or a combination of a number of laps to make up 15miles but all in vain. The closest I could find was an 8 mile route, settling on 2 laps to make the run a full 16 miles. I hadn't told Sarah that yet though. From experience, I know that Sarah is a bit of a stickler and if I had of told her that a single lap was 8 miles she would have insisted that we stop early on the second lap. I wasn't prepared to do that until I knew how were were feeling so I kept quite. So off we set, the first lap posing no problems to me at all, apart from the usual stiffness I feel. Sarah was struggling though, so as we made our way back past the car on the first lap we decided to stop and have a drink, do some stretching and set off again, and soon we were back on our way, I have to say I just kept feeling stronger and stronger and it really wasn't until around14 and a half miles that I had any real problems at all, and even then it was nothing I couldn't cope with, Sarah on the other hand was having an terrible time and I could see the pain on her face, I tried to run a bit ahead of her as she told me before that she likes to watch the back of my legs and feet as she's running as it kind of takes her mind off the running as she almost goes into auto pilot, but as I was running well and Sarah was struggling, I was opening up a gap and the distance was starting to annoy Sarah as she felt she was slowing us down and it was getting to her, I kept dropping back and trying to strike up a conversation with her to take her mind off it, I even suggested we walk, but Sarah was having none of it, the stubborn mule that she is. With two miles to go though the darkness had really drawn in and it was becoming very difficult to run. Having run all through the summer, it's hard to get use to the night closing in so quickly and timing our runs to finish before it is dark is extremely difficult. We had one more incident on the last stretch that I'll let Sarah tell you about, but eventually made it back to the car in 2hours 39minutes, perfect for our 10 minute mile. It was then I broke the news to Sarah that she had run 16 and not 15 miles. I expected a dig to be honest after the pain she was in, but she was really overjoyed, so after a good long stretch, a lie down on the grass watching the stars, we headed back to mine for a well deserved rest with the knowledge that we could have a nice long lie in today, and that we did.
All in all, absolutely delighted with how it went and I'm really looking forward to next weeks half marathon in the park. Roll on Saturday.