18 in the country

We went to visit Kelley's mom on Lake Murray in the middle of nowhere SC for the weekend. We didn't bring the camera, but I wish I had some pics. It ended up being a beautiful weekend to be at the lake. Her sister and our niece also came down, and it's always fun to visit with them too.

I got in an 18 mile run on saturday with some ups and downs. Really, they live in the middle of the country so I was going to go out 3 miles, turn around for a 6 mile lap and do that 3 times. Turns out, it's exactly 3 miles to the stop sign. Yea, they are that far out in the country. Being on a lake, it's all really flat compared to here. But I discovered it was mostly uphill to the stop sign, and mostly downhill coming back to the house.

I forgot to bring the shuffle, so I did it all with no tunes (DOH!!) It was just me and the cows. Literally, on these state maintained public roads I saw 2 deer, about 50 cows, several dozen horses, and only 6 cars. I saw some really cool stuff that I couldn't take pictures of. So it's really your loss. But I was thinking about RBR the whole time. She's always posting pics of cows on her crazy runs. And she ended up with some weird tan lines from her last marathon, more on that later. The numbers from garmin:

lap 1: 6 miles, 1:05:23, 10:54 per mile
lap 2: 6 miles, 1:13:31, 12:14 per mile
lap 3: 6 miles, 1:18:28, 13:0 per mile
Total: 18.0 miles, 3:37:23, 12:04 per mile

So for those of you who put together a 3:48 marathon or faster, I say good job. This long run kicked me all over the place. It's not exactly a negative split. But it was over 90 degrees and very sunny for the whole run. So I really had to manage my hydration. My last 18 mile run was much faster than that. but that's ok. It's done now.

Thanks to the heat and unexpected sunshine, I ended up with some very funny tan lines. I wore chopat braces on both knees, and they left a funny white stripe on the back of my legs, while my calfs are quite burned. Of course I had the low socks on, so my feet are pasty white now, and both sets of family's had quite a laugh about it. There again, a nod and a wink to RBR. She recently chaperoned a prom in sandals with the bike sock tan lines.

Yesterday was just a lazy time hanging out at the lakehouse. I wanted to get a swim in Lake Murray, but it just didn't happen. might still be a little cold for that.

We came back to Greenville and had dinner with my folks and Morgan last night. Kelley was craving Mellow Mushroom pizza, so we picked up a couple and headed over. The kids sleep pattern is all screwy thanks to that much travel, but we all had a good time anyway. Mom came through the surgery fine, she has a little splint on her nose that is coming off friday. My grandmother got moved back to her assisted living apartment, and is quite happy to be home again.

So all is well here. Well, except it's monday again. have a great week!