Well.  Here we go.  My long runs are getting seriously long at this point.  And, here I am, out of town at a seminar, and I have to find a way to do a long run.  Training has officially become somewhat complicated.  However, I’m ready for it.  I laid out my running clothes the night before and I planned a route the night before, so all I had to do this morning was roll out of bed, get dressed, and go.

I already knew I’d be going about 2 miles up an unlight street in the black of the pre-dawn morning, but I figured that when I turned onto the next street, there would be lights on that street.  Wrong.  Another 2 miles with no lights.  I ran just barely putting one foot in front of the other, trying to concentrate on the white line on the side of the road, trying not to turn an ankle most of the time.

Certainly by the time I get to the next street, there will be street lights.  Wrong again.  Are there NO street lights in Tucson?!?!  I guess not.  To make that dark street more exciting, there was construction taking 4 lanes down to 2, separated only by flashing orange baracades, with no white line marking the lanes at all.  I basically had to run in the middle of the lane, hoping a car wouldn’t come up behind me too fast for me to use it’s headlights to carefully find my way into the shoulder.  What a headache!  Obviously, I had trouble keeping up my speed.  I was supposed to be looking at 5.7 mph and I only ended up with about 5.5, which really wasn’t that bad, come to think of it, considering all the trouble I had.

By the time I rounded the next corner, onto a street called ‘Sunrise Drive,’ it was finally approaching sunrise and I had at least a little light to use to find my way down the street.  Plus, Sunrise Drive was not under construction, so my run became much more pleasant – except for then it got suddenly and inexplicably colder.  What the heck?  I had heard that it is the coldest right before dawn, but I had never experienced it getting both LIGHTER and COLDER at the same time.  That was sincerely weird.

I got to witness the entire sunrise, though, since this was really a long run.  The clouds went from subtly underlit to a pinky-orange to a reddish orange, to orange, as the sun emerged over the mountains.  It was gorgeous.  Eventually the temperature got at least back up to what it was, and probably even a few degrees warmer and so by then I could see and it was a comfortable temperature, but I was only at about Mile 9 and it sure seemed like Mile 11 was way too far away.

I kept pluggin’ along, using my ‘every-mile’ stops as I needed them.  I was pretty pleased that I had somewhat forgotten about them and had run about the first 4 miles without any stops whatsoever.  After that, thought, I did stop about every mile or mile and a half.  Maybe one of the stretches was 2 miles, but I don’t think I went more than 2 miles after that without a brief walking, drinking rest.

I hit the 11.3 mark about a half-mile away from the hotel and walked the rest of the way back.  I had no motivation to jog the rest of the way back.  I was pretty wiped out.  I hit the hot tub, shower, more juice, and then off to my seminar where I was somewhat sleepy much of the day.

Somehow or another, I am still on track with my training.  I sure hope I laid it out right!