11 miles

Adjustments:  So I actually thought that my phone was dead at amount mile 8 so I didn't pause it when I went into the hospital  --which is why the last part of the run says it took me 47 minutes. 

So just taking that part out of the equation, legitimately I ran 10.7 miles at  2:04:47

And a guestimate for my 11.18 mile run would be  2:12:00

(so...not sure how my goal is looking to break 2 hours for 13.1 miles....but that is still my goal. 

I think I will lose about 5 minutes just running at the lower altitude, and hopefully another five minutes running in non-frigid temperatures, and a few bonus minutes on top of that by not having to wear twelve layers of clothes.)

Here is the play by play of today's run: 

The Half marathon is a week and a half away, and I wanted to get one more long run in before the race.   I woke up in a grumpy funk today and spent most of the morning browsing the web from the couch on my new smart phone...just because I can :)   After about 11:00 I decided I needed to just get out of the house, and with Rachel back and school and nothing on my agenda yet--what better way to get out of a funk than to spend a few hours running with my headphones on and the music cranked up?!   The thermometer read 25 degrees so I pulled on all the layers I have come to find are necessary at that temp and headed out for a run.  I took Cali for 5.5 miles then came back to drop her off at the house.  I had actually gotten pretty hot--the sun was out and shining so it felt a lot warmer than 25.--maybe as far as warm 35 degrees--woooo!!! ha ha! --Shows you what I have come to think is "warm" these days.  :)    So I shed the long underwear, and traded into a lighter weight sweater and lost the gloves and neck warmer.  (Seriously, I think I should account for carrying another couple of pounds during that first part of the run I had so much gear on).   So I took off a second time and was still feeling good so I decided to try and run farther than my current record--which was 10 miles.  So back around the neighborhood and clear down to our one stoplight, and back.  I gotta say, I felt like my body was in a nice auto-pilot-groove from about mile 6-10.  I think my plan for the race should definitely be to not stop for any reason during the last part of the race--still grab a drink at water stations, but slowing to a walk to grab a quick rest, and actually be able to swallow the water is a luxury that I don't think will be possible--since any stop at this point makes it ten times harder to start running again.  Your muscles start getting sore and any other ache or pain that was very slight while running starts throbbing  (this is what I experienced during the previous 10 mile run).  But I just kept chugging along this time and it felt much better.    I was heading back up the trecherous hill up to the housing compound during mile 10  and I began dreaming of being home, taking a hot shower....scarfing down some delicious food...having a giant drink of gatorade--and suddenly remembered that my house key was still in the pocket of the original sweater I had worn, which was now locked in my house because Sam was back at work.  So, good thing Sam works close, but it meant that I had to walk into the hospital (Looking and smelling delightful!) and ask to see Sam--who was apparently in the middle of trying to numb a young patient so I had to wait quite a while before he could come to my rescue.  I didn't want to sit down in the waiting room, because quite honestly I thought I might not be able to get back up, so I wandered the hallway back and forth--which was the perfect place for about 5 other people that i know to walk by and see me in my glorious state.  I wanted to scream--I just ran 11 miles!!! That is why I look like this :) Ha ha ...but instead, I just gave a friendly nod and said hello and hoped Sam would hurry up.   While I had intended to take the long way home to try and make it 12 miles, after the long wait I opted for the short cut, and let's just say that after being stopped for so long, the last half mile home was miserable :)   Again, thankfully it was only a half mile away.  

Now on to lots of eating--in an attempt to make up for the 1500 calories I just burned!  YAY!