Hills and More Hills

I had a dilemma:

I had 18 miles to cover on Sunday, and it looked like I was going to run them alone until. . . Rachel came along. Rachel is another Cleveland Marathon Ambassador; you can check her out here.

What a happy coincidence that Rachel had to run 18 miles, too. . . except she wanted to start at 7:00 AM.  In Chagrin Falls, which is 40 minutes away from my house.

This is EXACTLY how I feel when I realize I need to get up before 5 AM to be ready for a long run on my day off.

At first I said no, but after watching Moana with my kids, I decided to call it an early night, and I told Rachel I'd meet her in the wee hours of the morning.

We did two loops of 9 miles. I liked the idea of doing these loops because it wasn't the same loop, and I got to stop by my car to eat a banana and consider a wardrobe change (which I didn't need after all). The hard part (besides getting up so early) was that both loops were ALL HILLS.  SO. MANY. HILLS.

This is EXACTLY how the hills looked.  Maybe.

It was so pretty running through Hunting Valley, and we decided to take some pictures of the river.

My morning view

It's difficult to find a good running partner without too much adjustment. There is so much to think about: pace, personality, stamina, training needs. I was really lucky because Rachel and I seemed to mesh pretty well, and we stayed strong for the full 18 miles of freaking hills. I'm really glad I gave the 7 AM call a chance.

We look pretty good for being about 6 miles from the finish.

Because I was on Spring Break, I put in some good miles this week. I actually got a nine-miler in midweek by running part of the Blue Line in reverse. It was a great way to shake up the routine. I ran 40 miles, and I'm still alive and thriving.  Not bad at all. Maybe I'll be ok in this marathon after all.

Will you join me, Peeps?  Register here for the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon.  I promise we will have fun! Until then, run happy, Peeps!

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