Personal Record: 18 MILES!

This is me after 18 miles.

Wow. 18 miles. Who would have ever thought that one year ago it was a struggle to run 3 miles. I spent a lot of time designing a running route through Draper and then into Sandy. Luckily I went out to drive my course and discovered several problems that I could not fix like the Porter Rockwell trail into Sandy was ripped up because TRAX is coming closer to Draper. So back to the "driving board."
I went out and decided where else we could run that was safe and not too repetitive - I like an adventure. And I also went out and placed plenty of water. Haha. If we drank all I put out we would have need restrooms every 2 miles!

I felt very blessed today to have the cloud cover instead of the sun as predicted. I'll battle the wind - it is easier for me than the sun.

Well Cyndie and I met at the Draper City Park at 7am. Actually a little before that as Cyndie spotted me driving on 12300 South. It was early, we were the only cars. When we got to the park we got in my van and drove up to a trail entrance up by the point of the mountain to the Porter Rockwell Trail. Lots of runners. Big running day in Draper. The Porter Rockwell Trail is mostly downhill, but it has quite a few rolling hills. At about 5 miles we arrived back at Draper City Park. Right away we headed for the bathroom!
Grab some water and off again to hit the Draper Canal Trail. Now this trail starts at an unmarked place on Pioneer Road. Starts out with a grassy road then into a dirt road filled with bike jumps. After the short run on this terrain we ran on the street I missed the trail connector but we went up and around and caught it a block away. Back on the trail we took another detour - during races they open up gates and fencing to connect to the Porter Rockwell Trail where I wanted to go. These were locked so we ran through the neighborhood and picked it up later. Back on track we then headed on the trail and street going down to the Draper Canal Trail head off of 13800 South. Soon we were back at the park.

Cyndie was struggling by this time. We had run in a lot of wind. 1st she doesn't need to run 18 miles! She is doing a half marathon, so the mental desire is weak. 2nd she did not get any sleep last night. 3rd she partied for a week on her vacation cruise, imagine that on her VACATION she had fun! 4th she ate a new type of bar that didn't agree with her stomach. We both decided long runs have everything to do with rest & nutritious food. She took a break while I ran a bit and then she joined me again from Cindy Lane. Ran around the park, hit another trail and ran 900 East took a connecting road down to 300 East and looped back up. I ran three out and backs to add mileage to my run while Cyndie headed for her car. Dedicated friend. No way did this girl let me down.
Finally it was time to head back to the trail and then hit the park, my ending point. Still needing more mileage I circled the baseball field and then the park for one last time. I jus ran my last mile. 
I made my goal and personal record of 18 miles.  Mile1 11:50 Mile2 12:07 Mile3 12:20 Mile4 12:30 Mile5 13:04 Mile6 13:49 Mile7 13:38 Mile8 13:44 Mile9 13:00 Mile10 13:22 Mile11 13:11 Mile12 13:15 Mile13 13:23 Mile14 14:04 Mile15 14:23 Mile16 14:22 Mile17 14:24 Mile18 12:24. Total time 3:58:56.

No way did Cyndie let me down today. I felt her support every mile. Thanks Cyndie, I appreciate how you are helping me prepare for my marathon. She goes above and beyond to help me succeed.

So what does a girl do who just ran 18 miles?????? She goes and gets a sub sandwich at Port o Subs - a BBQ Pork with a nice chocolate chip cookie. Then home for a shower to get rid of the salt. 
On to the next planned event. A bike shifting lesson with Evan & Peggy Matheson. Evan put my bike up on his stand and experimented with the shifting a bit so that he could teach me how to shift my compact sram shifter. And where do you learn how to shift? Unfortunately hills. Right off the bat from their house we took the steep but thankfully short hill. I had to circle around and give it another try - I didn't realize we were doing THAT HILL. But with my new knowledge of how to get into my low climbing gear I was able to pedal up it with ease. Then we headed for the Lampton View hill. Got the shifting right and up I went. We did a loop on the Jordan River Trail then headed to a gradual.... you guess it = hill. Did the same loop again and this time it took a couple of circles to get gears ready then up the hill. On to the big hill I thought I was in the lower gear - NOT! So Evan showed me how to get it in on a hill, you point down the hill darn! and then using breaks shift into the correct gear circle around and take the hill. Wow.  8.5 miles on the bike, now my legs feel rested from the run. BTW I love my Cannondale bike.