12 miles.

This morning we tackled our longest training run to date with CARA: a 12 miler. This was also BMB’s longest run ever, by 2 miles. We were a little nervous going into it as 2 hours of running is pretty intimidating. We had been warned to drop down 30 seconds to a minute pace wise because of the heat, but for once the spastic Chicago weather worked in our favor and the conditions weren’t awful. Yes, it was humid, but it was overcast the entire time. We actually ended up running faster than our 10 minute mile pace, which is just awesome.

To fuel up for today’s run last night BMB put on his Barbie chef hat and made us some orechiette pasta, more commonly known as “tiny hats”.

He mixed a little bit of alfredo sauce with the red, a personal favorite of his.

I also cooked up the remaining pancetta from the other night to mix in.

Topped with peas and bread it was the perfect pre long run meal.

We woke up today and I was just not having a good morning. I drank my coffee and ate my Clif Bar as always.

But the coffee didn’t do it’s job until about 8 steps into the run, which is as far from ideal as you can get.

I packed up my GUS, Band-Aids, and sunscreen in my fanny pack and just hoped for the best.

We met up with our group at the normal spot and headed yet again, south along the lake.

It’s getting a little old to tell you the truth, but the path is way too crowded in the other direction.

It was really nice to have two different Gatorade stops set up a long the way.

The mile 6 turnaround is always a huge mental boost for me. If I made it that far I have to get home someway so I know I’ll find a way.

I ended up splitting 2 GUs with Sara at mile 6 and 9, approximately. Blueberry pomegranate = major fail. I plan on sticking with vanilla bean and espresso love from here on out.

My legs didn’t start to really hurt until the last mile, which is fine. I’ll take that any day. We ended up running every mile except for the last under 10 minutes.