18 miles

done. in the books. I had mapped out a route last night that pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn't fall short. I loaded up the double-barreled water bottle holder, the garmin and the iPod, and headed out the door rounabout 5:20. I decided to set the garmin for 10 minute/1 minute splits instead of my usual 1 mile/1 minute repeats, just to see how it went. I knew I'd get out of synch with the splits, but didn't mind so much because I was really just more concerned with getting in the full distance, taking both the running segments and the walk breaks into consideration.

the weather was amazing -- about 6 miles in, I passed a sign that indicated it was still only 60 degrees out, and the humidity was non-existent. It was very nice, and i was dressed perfectly for it in shorts and a short-sleeved tech shirt. Bright yellow, of course.

I felt really good all throughout the run, even in the late going. No ankle issues, no shin problems, and only a little bit of a knee twinge early on that dissipated almost as soon as it came on -- I think that may have been caused by the canting of the pavement at that point. No stomach issues, nor feelings of hitting that dreaded wall, even though I didn't eat before I headed out and had some hunger pangs about mile 5-6. But I really felt fine besides that. Toward the end, my feet were hurting, but it didn't slow me down tremendously. And hello, it's to be expected -- I just ran for three hours!

So, here is breakdown:
Total time: 3:26:32
Total distance: 18.oo miles
"rest"/walking time: 18 minutes
"rest"/walking distance: 1.08 miles
Calories burned: 2435

No splits since they are for 10-minute segments instead of miles, and they'll mess me up. I do know that counting walk breaks in, average pace was 11:28. Which will do. If i can maintain that for the remaining 8.2 miles come October 29, I'll be in good shape. We shall see.

Now to rest up a bit. We may try to catch the last game of the season down at the ballpark this afternoon -- if we do, the boys will have completed a sports trifecta this weekend, with the Stars on Friday, the 'Horns yesterday and MLB today. Too bad the 'boys aren't on Monday night or they could go 4 for 4.

Peace out. Nap time.