9 Miles... Again

I'm having a hard time trusting the taper that will come in just a few weeks, prior to my half. The purpose of a taper is to allow your legs to recover so you race at full potential. You don't not run, but you cut the mileage back. I haven't completed a long run over 6 miles in 2 weeks and my legs felt everything but fresh today. The run started out OK, the sun peeked out for a brief 17 seconds at about minute 4. I did an out-and-back from home to Stacy Road and finished it up with one lap around the block to hit that 9.00 distance on my Garmin. Jake sent me a text when I was not too far into the run that helped, then another when I had just a couple miles to go. I was maybe a mile from home and he drove by me, shouting, "I'm proud of you!" out the window. I needed that. The run toward home was into the wind- about 12mph out of the south. Yuck. Have I mentioned I'm a finicky runner? I don't like cold or wind. Forget the rain and snow that I read about other runners dealing with. But I still like running. It allows me to prove that I can do it. Even if somedays I'm the only person who I need to prove it to.

Total time 1:40:00. I didn't even look at my Garmin until I reached the turn around point and that was really just to see what the actual distance was.