Two Rivers Bridge Run!

This morning I was pretty happy about a short 12 mile run.  I remember very clearly when I thought it was impossible that I'd ever run 3 miles, and after the past 2 weeks, 12 miles seems like a short run.  I got down to the river trail just before 7, excited that the Two Rivers Bridge was supposed to be open today.

The trail was much more crowded than usual--lots of people planning to check out the new bridge.  Some clouds blocked the sun for the first part of my run and it was just about comfortable.  I crossed the big dam bridge, refilled on water, and headed down towards the 430 bridge.

As I got closer to the bridge, I could see cyclists crossing it.  YES! I'd been waiting for this forever.  A reporter was being filmed at the base of the bridge as I started over--I have hopes that my backside was on tv today.  I admired the metal parts of the bridge--already deeply rusted, I wondered if that was done on purpose to give the bridge some kind of vintage look.  Either way, it works.  Once I crossed, I went straight on the trail in Two Rivers Park.  It was nice--almost immediately the trail goes into thick pine forest.  At one point the swampy water comes right up to the trail, so--yeah, I was on snake watch.  None surfaced, though, and I ran up to the entrance to the park on the other side, made the circle, and crossed back over.

The second half of the run was much much hotter.  The clouds were gone and the sun was hot hot.  My face burned and I reminded myself that it's never hard to keep going when it's easy.  It's when it's hard that shows me what I'm capable of.  I kept going today--no extra stops away from the water fountain.  Even though I looked forward to a 12 miler and it did feel good, I didn't get the same sense of satisfaction when it was over. I did a lot of thinking about how to run the 18 miles next week.  I'm thinking about heading to downtown first to get the first ten miles in and then going over the bridges and back for the last 8.

I keep telling myself: 18, 14, 20, 12.  Those are the long runs I have left in training before the race.  Plus a few 8-10 milers.  Still.  4 more weeks.  I'm getting there.