16 miles turns into 18 (well, 17.84)

Once again I wound up running further than I intended.  And in this case also faster than I intended.  I had gone  up to the C&O Trail (MD side of the Potomac) for my "16 miler" and around mile 3 wound up running with "Mike" who was putting in 18 miles. We had started from almost the same place, so his turn around spot on the trail was just a little bit further than mine would have been, so I figured what the heck, I don't have any problem doing the extra couple of miles.

Quick aside: The C&O trail is a great place to run - I really enjoy it, particularly very early in the morning before people start to arrive.  Today I saw a young buck (maybe a 6 pointer?)  and came within 20 feet of him. Pretty cool. Something that I don't see everyday.

And BTW, while I prefer to finish my runs on whole numbers, my spot to get off the trail happened to be at 17.84 miles...  I would have run that extra 0.16 miles except that a) I didn't realize how close I was to my mile marker, b) I was tired, c) it would have required me to run uphill, and d) I was tired! I'd had enough...  but I would have done it had I known...

The other little issue of having run with Mike was that he was running a little bit of a faster pace than I was intending to run, more or less 8:45-8:50 minute miles, whereas I was thinking of keeping it to somewhere around 9:00 to 9:10 pace.  But I was actually looking for some company for this run and figured that extra effort on my part would be worth it - and it was.  It was a great work out and I wound up averaging a 9:00 min/mile pace overall, which puts me right on target for reaching my 4 hour marathon - assuming of course that I can run the next 8 miles at a 9 min pace (not so sure about that).... My right quad was starting to fire around mile 16 and I fought it off by changing my gait until I found something that relieved the stress or tension on it and I didn't think about it at all during the last mile.

While I wasn't sore, and didn't cramp, I was definitely tired by the time I was done.  The temptation to just lay down in the grass in the parking lot was incredible... but I didn't do it!!! Instead I walked around the parking area for a bit, did some stretching, then drove home and took my dog for a mile walk. I was feeling really tired, but that mile walk was wonders for my legs. Then a nice cold bath... ahh heaven...

All in all, I'm getting more confident about being able to do reasonably well in the MCM.  Even more happy about the fact that I've staved off any cramping issues this year - I've come close... but I've avoided them. Big win for me. I believe that the reason is simply that I am paying more attention to my fueling and my endurance level is substantially improved.

Next week is 18 miles (again) - going to try to work on my negative split strategy.
63 days to the MCM !!  (9 very short weeks)