20 on the 20th

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!  Way back on December 20th I knocked out my 20 mile run.  The weather was set to turn bone chillingly cold and Thursday looked like the nice last day.  Good thing I was on Christmas vacation already!

I started out early so it was dark.  Since I was going to be running on a pathway with lots of cyclists commuting to work I had my headlamp on for safety.  I needed my sunglasses for later though!  It was a beautiful morning as the sun started to come up over downtown.  I popped into the YMCA in Eau Claire for a bathroom break and to defrost the top of my water bottle.  I was drinking Lemon Tea nuun for the first time.  I loved this flavour!  Definitely one of my favourite flavours of nuun.  I ran through downtown to make my way south towards the Elbow River.  My run was flying by and I was feeling pretty good.  At the half way point going right up a big hill!  As I ran south I was running low on fluids and I would need a bathroom soon too.  I was hoping the parks I was running through would provide an opportunity, but apparently it was the wrong time of year for that.I had to make a detour to Marda Loop to by water and find a public washroom but it didn’t impact my 20 miler route too much.  The last three miles of my run was definitely tough.  My legs were stiffening up and running downhill was pretty painful.  I kept going and pushed through it.  I know I’ll be able to push through it come race day too.My longest run of my Goofy Challenge training was done!  Bring on the taper!

PS – If you like nuun on Facebook could you please vote for me in the nuun cocktail challenge?  I made a delicious gin and strawberry lemonade nuun based cocktail.  I’m hoping it can win me some nuun!!  Please vote for my Gin-nuun-Juice cocktail!