7/7/2012 In which the power of community crushes the living shit out of the weaksauceness of humidity.

Yesterday was really bad for no reason worth mentioning, but once again I couldn't fit in a run and so I was pretty sure it was the end of the world. My running career was definitely over. I would scratch from the Scuffle. And worst of all, I had to drive to Worcester (barf) for a gig.

Guess I was in kind of rough shape when I arrived but as soon as we started playing, things improved. A recent tour, as in, two weeks of focus on playing instead of running, had done wonders for my (and M's too) playing.

It all works out. It does.

The end of the world must have been postponed.

We played until 12:30am, three sets. I drove until 1:45am, slept in the car until 4:45am, drove to Ptown, slept for an hour there, drove 20 more minutes and then slept for another hour. With my awesome sleeping, accompanied by similarly awesome nutrition, I did not have high hopes for today's run, but if nothing else today, I was totally. going. running.

I'd erroneously thought the Monsters were going to be up north today so I didn't go right to Brad. I grabbed a snack and checked emails, and lo! There was one from Colin, saying we should go run at the Brad sometime. Huh. I replied, "How about now?" and was sure that no one in their right mind was going to want to run in the middle of the day in a million percent humidity.

The phone rang. We discussed both not really feeling up to snuff for a long run but we both also totally wanted to get in a few miles.

We last ran together one year ago, and I remember him saying he was getting into the idea of doing an ultra. I was like, "Wow, not something I'll probably ever do, but...cool!" (He has not done one yet but is eyeing the Big Brad Ultras, a tendency I am only too happy to encourage.)

We started on the East Side. There was actually a tiny bit of coolness in there and we were drenched and dripping, but not too uncomfortable. Had a great chat and covered a lot of ground. Speaking of ground, we'd done about 7 miles before we knew it, and both had perked up a bit. I'd drank most of my Amphipod (with 1/2 a Nuun in it) and he wasn't carrying water so we stopped back at the lot. "Looks like we're totally doing 10," I remarked. "Should we finish ourselves off on the hillier West Side?" He agreed. Badass.

When we stopped, my GPS read just under 12 miles. We were both really psyched. It really is so much easier with company. Seems like even people who insist that they like running alone end up saying that they go farther and run better with company. And I don't think I've ever heard anyone say, "I run worse with company." :)

We maintained a relaxed pace the whole way. C said this was the longest time period for which he'd ever run (though not the longest distance -- he's done a few marathons and is usually extremely fast!) but seemed pretty content with it. I am always relieved when fast people don't mind going slowly sometimes.

This run was a confidence builder. I was okay with having a long run of ~7miles this week, but I am so much happier with a long run of ~12ish. And I am really thankful for having had so much great running company in my world. I do wish I'd done speed this week but other than that, I am feeling mostly back on track.

~170min run
~11.75 miles
~Insanely humid. Solid. Steady. Mostly flattish, about 3 miles of hills at the end.
~ Clothing: as little as possible without getting arrested...