03/17/2007 St. Paddy's Day Long Run

It almost always snows in Cleveland for the St. Patrick's Day parade. This year was no exception. I woke to several inches of snow, a good amount of snow still falling, wind and temperatures of 15 degrees. Piled the now familiar layers of winter running clothes on and met the Team in Training group at the N. Chagrin reservation for a group run. I had a challenging run on the schedule for today: 15 miles with 12 at the pace I will run the marathon at. Most of my training has been at a much slower pace than this. I warmed up with the group and then ran the 12 miles pretty close to marathon pace. That was challenging. I can't imagine running another 14.2 miles at that pace! I'm hoping that a 8 more weeks of training and not having to wear a ton of winter clothing will help! Finished the morning with green Rice Crispy treats chased down with green Gatorade (the green beer came later in the day!)