20-miler - check!

Today was my first ever 20-miler and I'm feeling surprisingly good afterwards. While I'm in Barrie, I'm staying with my in-laws, and they are going to be moving to a new house soon. This house is conveniently located about 20 miles away, so that became the destination for my run. 

I left the house at 11am, after a breakfast of delicious ham-and-cheese crepes made by my father-in-law. It was about 6*C/43*F, but with 20km/h (12mph) winds and much stronger gusts, it felt a lot colder. Most of my run was spent running north, where the wind was coming from. That combined with all the hills made for a much slower run than I would have liked, but what can you do?

The first 7 or so miles passed relatively quickly and easily. I had a lot of turns to take as I navigated my way through the rural countryside, so that kept things interesting. However, once I got on the road that runs parallel to the highway (northwards, of course), I was stuck there for a good 8 miles. 8 miles of running straight into the wind and freezing my butt off. It was rough - it took a lot to convince myself to keep going, but I managed.

Once I turned east, out of the wind, the last 5 miles flew by. There were a couple of challenging hills towards the end but surprisingly, I wasn't completely dead when I finished. I think that bodes well for my race in 4 weeks, especially since the course is quite flat. When I was about 3 miles away from the new house, I called my in-laws, who came to pick me up. Here's the link to the Garmin data if you're interested.

A few statistics to note. 

- 20 miles is a new distance PR for me

- April has been my highest mileage month ever with 117.13 miles in the books (and there's still tomorrow)

- My 2012 mileage total is 359.98, which averages out to almost exactly 3 miles per day. This puts me well ahead of the pace to achieve my 1000 mile goal.

Happy running!