First Long Run of Training Done!

Well, somehow I managed to stick with the group and complete Sunday's long run.  It was an 18 mile run which come to find out, was also a very hilly run.  Bill is our group leader and he determines the distance and route of our long runs.  He had sent us an email letting us know it was going to be 18 and the basic directions of the route but I had no idea that it was non-stop hills throughout the entire run.  Around mile 12, I started getting that, "I really don't think I can do this" feeling and wanted to quit.  Fortunately for me, I run in a group and (a) not one of the members was going to stop, and (b) I had no idea where the hell I was (talk about country roads!) and if I stopped to walk, I would have gotten lost for sure so I plowed on and eventually, the feeling passed.  I'm incredibly pleased that I was able to get through this run given my lack of running lately.  Good to know that the endurance that we work so hard for doesn't leave you overnight!  Here is a screen shot from my Garmin so you can see the elevation (the gray represents elevation).  The hills were pretty hard and unfortunately, during the last 6 miles, those down hills that look like they'd be so great hurt almost more then going up hill! By then, my legs were screaming and going down hill was torture on the quads.

This Sunday is going to be a 20k run.  I'm running in the Leesburg 20k on Sunday morning so I'll treat that as my long run.  Then I'll get back to the scheduled run the week after that.