turbo terry Sunday

14.35km in 1hr41mins at a pace of 7.03

Every time I set out for my long run, I am pretty sure I won't finish it. It sounds like too much for 'lil old me. But wow it feels rad when it's done. Today I gave myself a victory lap around the block in Fort Langley, where I went to run. The dishwasher smoking on his break on the back steps, a posse of waiters, and some dudes in toques drinking on a patio on the riverfront, all got to hear about the fact that, fuck yes, that was me who just ran 14 kilometres! In the rain. Smiling.

I had all kinds of help for this one. The Johnson's lent me their Ipod nano walkman, and Michael filled it with goodness. Paula got me the Nike runpod, with a girl in it who kept me on track by telling me when I passed each km. Every second km, I stopped for a one minute walk, and starting at four kms, I had a sip of water and a taste of the energy goo I decided to try today, then tucked them both back into my supersale water belt I got at Courtenay's version of a Sports Junkie's 2nd hand store. I also wore special running socks Michael set me up with and my feet weren't stumpy just now when I got up for some more water to drink, which is rad, since usually I am gimped after laying down.

It's a really nice packed gravel trail, the Fort to Fort Trail in Ft. Langley. Starts on the river right downtown, then twists and turns through some woods, along a fairly quiet road and- my favorite- through a set of green, pretty, roly-poly hills with ancient orchard appple trees and marshy ponds just before Derby Reach.

The achy knee started creeping in at 7k, just a little ache that came and went, only on the left. By ten, when I stopped to walk, it took a lot of talking to myself to get running again, slow at first then the ache would fade away as I went...weird, but that was that. I was going super slow, just so I'd make the distance. WHICH I DID!