I drove up to Freeport yesterday to run this route again.   I need to get some hill work in before my next half marathon on May 1st and Freeport has plenty of hills.

It was overcast and about 45 degrees, which was fine. What wasn’t fine was the 15 mph winds. Those were not awesome. The snow is now gone, even though it did not feel like spring.

The roads were empty and quiet. I expected to see more people out since we were expected to get a bad rainstorm overnight and Sunday was looking iffy. But I didn’t see many people at all.

The wind and the hills got to me pretty quickly. At 2.5 miles, I was ready to turn around and cut it down to a 5 miler. But I made a deal with myself, I would not worry about my time. I would just keep going, and not beat myself up for going slower than I planned. I walked on the uphills and ran the flats and the downhills. I ran 2 minutes a mile slower than I wanted to run, but I kept going.

I did see some animals. A nice sign that spring is here even if the weather doesn’t show it. There were a few geese and some cows jabbering away as I ran by.

By about mile 8, my calves were absolutely screaming at me. I think it was the hills. Walking up them instead of running helped a bit. I was very tired and couldn’t ever get my rhythm. But I knew I needed to get the miles in so I just kept going.

I saw this snowman along the way and thought it looked pretty out of place in the middle of April.

I ended up doing 11.25 miles in 2:50 before stopping at a store for water. My slowest pace for a long run…ever. Technically to get back to my car was a full 12 miles, but I’m going to call this run 11.25 and consider myself grateful that I didn’t turn back at 2.5 miles. I will honor the deal I made with myself, I wouldn’t worry about the time, I would just complete the run.