positive

21 miles today.  I'm very pleased with my effort and run time of 4:30.  I've sort of been in a funk for a few days and didn't really feel like running.  I've always done my long runs on Saturday but the weather was potentially rainy with a pretty cool temp and with the funk I've been in it was easy to bail on it.   I went to bed early enough last night for a good nights sleep and didn't get up till 630.  I got busy and got downtown to Townlake for an 8am start.  It sure felt like a late start and I was looking for any reason to bail. 

I parked in the small parking lot at Riverside and Lamar and headed east.  I did the I35- Lamar loop first for 4 miles.  I replenished and headed west towards Mopac.  I was using my Runkeeper app so I didn't need to worry about keeping track of my mileage.  When I got to the 1 mile footbridge I took a left and ran thru Zilker over to the Barton Creek Greenbelt trailhead.  It was an interesting thing flashing back to all the longs runs me and my running friends used to do starting in that parking lot.  I turned around and then finished the Mopac/1st street loop.  That put me at a total of 9.3 miles.  I was starting to feel pretty good and realized I was nearly halfway through my mileage goal of 20 miles.  At this point I decided to really change things up and headed down South Lamar Blvd.  I went a little over 2 miles and turned around.  On the way back all the crap I ate the day before started rebelling on me.  I think the Ensure I drank got everything stirred up.  I'm running back north on Lamar looking for any prospective place to duck in and relieve myself.  I spotted a construction site across the street at one point and ran over there only to find all 3 porto potties without paper.  All along I knew I had the McDonalds coming up.  Now there was no not stopping there.  I just hoped the cash register people were not facing the door I was going to walk through.  Thankfully they weren't.  I made a mad dash into the restroom, nobody else was in there and the only toilet was empty and clean.  Oh my, what a relief that was!!  I took care of business and ran the rest of the way back to the truck.  I was at approximately 13.7 miles then so I did the I35/ Lamar loop again to get to 17 plus.  I was getting bored with Townlake so I thought I'd cross the water again and do an out and back on the Shoal Creek walkway and check out the new construction.  That was a big fail.  I didn't get very far and it was all shut down.  I walked across an old footbridge headed east and turned north at Nueces street.  I could have gotten the rest of my mileage downtown but didn't think it was wise to be navigating busy downtown streets in my fatigued condition so I turned west on 5th and headed towards Lamar.  At my last stop point I had decided to go ahead and go for the 21 mile mark.  I knew I'd have just a little more confidence going into the marathon knowing I'd at least split the mileage difference between the 25k and the marathon.  I got back to Townlake and knew I needed at least another mile and a half so I headed east again.  I got to 1st street and checked my mileage and sure enough needed a mile.  I went ahead and ran west again but crossed Riverside before the train trestle and went through the new park on that side and it went all the way through to Barton Springs Rd.  It's a very nice little park.  I ran west and turned on Lamar and didn't have far to go for my 21 and then walked it in.

All in all I'm really happy with the way the day turned out.  I know I'm not in the greatest shape to be attempting the marathon distance in 2 weeks but I'm chomping at the bit to get another one under my belt.  It's been a long time.  I really think the core and strengthening stuff I've been doing fairly steadily really helped today.  Hells Hills is definitely not a difficult course but it's not Townlake either.  At the 3:21 (Hells Hills finish time) point today I was at 16 miles so I'm going to count that as a positive too.....