More Whiskeag

No, no, not more whiskey :) Seriously, if I'm going to have a true drink it's going to be some sort of margarita, a gin and tonic or a rum and coke, none of that whiskey stuff ;) But anyway, back to today. So the plan was for 16. I got a bit more sleep last night but the darn cats had me up early despite the fact that I didn't need to get Sam out of bed until 7:15 and could have slept in. Ah well. I was hopeful I could pull off the 16 but my legs have felt tired this week so I was a bit unsure that it would all work out as planned.

I dropped Sam off at camp and headed out onto the Whiskeag Trail again. I figured it was right there and would mean less driving, plus I knew there were some side trails to explore and I was hoping I could wander around enough to get 16 without too much repetition aside from the out-and-back. It was a beautiful, sunny morning but was warming up quickly. I took my time running along and added on a fairly long loop near the cemetery that the mountain bikers had obviously made for themselves - it involved lots of twists and turns, a few climbs up rocky ledges and even a jump - plus a short loop in Sewall Woods.

My plan when I hit the parking lot at Thorne Head was to loop around through the preserve hitting all the inner trails first, then do the Narrows Trail, which ran right along the edge of the Kennebec. There was a nice wide graded path up to an overlook plus some fun singletrack to run, and The Narrows Trail did not disappoint - it was indeed narrow, offering some nice views of the river.

Kennebec views

Looking out onto the river

I managed to get the mileage to 10.5 before turning around to run back to the Y. I picked up the pace a bit in the last few miles as I had, yet again, run out of water with about 3 miles to go. I think this is the 4th time this has happened in the last 4 weeks on my long runs, including during Bear Brook last weekend. Duh. When will I learn that I need more water than I think I need during these long summer runs?! Anyway, I considered stopping back at the car with my watch reading 15.4 but ended up just dropping my pack, taking a long swig of water from my water bottle and doing the final 0.6 in a few laps through the neighborhood and back up into the woods behind the Y. Felt better to finish up the intended mileage than wimp out and leave it with only 0.6 to go.

While the run wasn't fast and it wasn't entirely pretty, the legs held up pretty well and I was in good spirits throughout. As anticipated though, I will be happily enjoying these next two days off from running while Ryan is in VT!

Since it was just Sam and I tonight, we decided to have a girl's night out of sushi and gelato :) What? Is there a better combo?! ;) It was delish, and is always fun to spend a little extra fun time with her. Now if we can keep from killing each other the rest of the weekend....

We sat at the bar so we could watch the sushi guys put together the rolls and boats

Being goofy

I think she's sugared up already ;)

In race-related news, Bear Brook results are up. Definitely slower times overall than in 2014; not sure if the course was the same or longer, or if it was just the heat and humidity. Also found a few pictures up. I posted on Facebook that I wondered why I was rarely smiling nor did I ever look lithe or graceful in my race pictures. I got some really lovely responses, even though I wasn't fishing for compliments. I was just pointing out something that is funny to me. But I am, as I said, very happy and grateful for my focus and my strong legs which let me churn out the miles!

Final push to the finish line

Laughing at my awesome "Dancing Star" third place ribbon ;)

Thanks to Peak Focus Photography for the shots!