Never leave home without it and Sunday runday

Every runner has something that they cannot leave the house without before a run. Watch,  headphones, lucky pair of socks, whatever it is your run is not the same without your special item(s). My items are vaseline and my phone.

Vaseline is what I use instead of Body Glide. I haven't gotten Body Glide yet because, well... do you see the size of this thing!? The tub is huge and I would like to use all of it instead of throwing it away. I used to apply it after a run to temper the burns and chaffing marks that I got in various places. Now I apply it before a run to avoid screaming in the shower when the hot water hits my marked up skin. 

The other item I can't run without is my phone. No I don't have any running apps on it I use it for the purpose with which it's intended. Phone calls. There have been only two occasions that I can think of when I needed to call my wife to have her pick me up because I had an injury or something went wrong. Thankfully I don't have to use it often but I like to know that it's there. 

Today I did my long run and I gotta say, I felt pretty darn good. I skipped the runner's group last week because I did a ten mile race on Saturday and that night my wife and I celebrated our three year anniversary with a late dinner. 

We're normally the same height but I had my heels on. 

The thought of getting up early was too much to bear so I skipped it last week. When my alarm went off this morning I didn't feel any more excited to run but once I got my clothes on and I was out the door I felt ready.

The majority of the runners out this morning were fast and I wanted to take a part of the route that I've never done before. That meant that I either had to deal with getting lost or try and keep up. Most of the really fast pack was gone before I could even get my body in gear but there were a handful of people that were running at a pace that I could handle. The conditions were ideal for a Florida morning and that helped ease some of the anxiety about keeping up. 

After the second water station my group kind of frayed a bit and I passed two guys that I was originally pacing with. Once I no longer heard their voices behind me I had to focus on keeping steady so I could push through. At some point I noticed that a quarter of a mile in front of me was one of the runners who is a complete bad a**. She's a triathlete who's very petite and has zero percent body fat. My eyes locked onto her legs and I tried to keep her pace. There were a couple of moments where it felt like my legs were still moving forward and my body was flailing behind but I just kept focused on her the entire time. 

When we got to the third water station our paths split and I had to keep the pace alone. I know that there were a couple of moments when I lagged a bit but once I could feel my breathing slow down and my heart rate lower, I got back in gear. Today's time isn't the fastest that I've run for 12 miles but it's the best that I've felt. These are the days that make running worth it.