Longest Run of my Life...literally

15 miler done! 

Was it painful? Yes. 
Was the route choice intelligent? No.
Did I get lost? Yes, but only once or twice. 
Did I yell at anybody (Graham included)? No! :)
Did I have fun (at least a little)? Yes, a couple times anyways.
Did I sh*t my pants? No!!

With a total elevation gain of 1,868 ft, this run was rough.

All in all, I'd call it a success. The first seven miles were basically UP, followed by 5 or so miles of DOWN and finally featured a mix of both in the final three miles. As you can imagine, the first half was terrible and I wondered why the hell I had signed up for something as tortuous as a marathon. The first half the downhill was fantastic and I figured I would probably win my age group at Boston - okay, I wasn't high enough to think that, but I was sure I'd definitely survive the race and maybe even finish with a little umph. Then as I got into the second half of the downhill section, I was pretty sure that my legs were splintering and started dictating the phone call I was going to have to make to my sister in law "Hey, yeah, I'm really sorry but I won't be able to take your Boston bib because my legs are two shattered lumps that no longer function." Fortunately, the trail finally evened out a bit and nothing shattered. My long run next Sunday is 18 miles (shudder) and I plan on picking out a much more even route. 

One of my wrong turns landed me in a massive
kairn garden in Pogonip...cool, but weird.

I LOVE my sister in law's garmin GPS watch though there were a couple times on the run when I was convinced that the watch was lying to me about my decreasing pace. One time I told it that it was an asshole...out loud. No, I'm not proud of it, but hey, I was just trying to survive out there.