22 miles on the roads

22 miles on the roads this morning. Temperatures were very mild and the ice on the roads is melting fast. On River Rd in Hiram about 10 miles into my run, a big black dog (appropriately named Tipper) came bounding over a snow bank and head butted me, knocking me right off my feet. He didn't bite, but he looked like he was thinking about it. I have been dog bitten an even dozen times in my life and I'd like to keep it at that nice round number. A woman (I think) in a wool shirt with a cigar hanging out of the corner of her mouth was shoveling snow. She said, "that's enough, Tipper" As if it wasn't too much, but just enough. Tipper reluctantly retreated back to the woman's side and growled at me from a safe distance. I didn't say anything because she looked a lot tougher than me. I was pretty sore the rest of the run, especially my neck and lower back.

A little farther down the road I saw a huge owl which kind of dropped down out of a tree in front of me, and then flew along the road ahead of me right at eye level for about 30 feet or so. It was pretty cool! At the end of River Rd in Hiram, I turned onto rte 117 for a short stretch, then turned left onto Notch Rd.

I had never run this loop before, but regularly bike it in the summer. Notch Rd seemed a lot longer on foot than on the bike. But it also seemed a lot less hilly on foot than on the bike. This is a pretty road with almost no traffic. The sun kept trying to come out, but never made it. So it was cloudy and gray most of the run. I stopped for some candy orange slices and water every so often. I probably should have eaten more before I started and/or brought more calories with me because I was getting hungry by mid way.

For the entire run I was dreading the last 4 mile stretch over Rte 160. The rest of the run is on rural roads with very little traffic. Sure enough, as I got to rte 160 at about mile 18, I started to feel tired and started wishing I was done. 22 miles is a long way to run on the roads, on the trails it doesn't seem so bad. My legs were getting sore from the pounding. And I had set myself up to feel crummy for the last 4 miles because I had been telling myself it would be a tough stretch. So I struggled for the last 4 miles, but kept running and made it home in good time.

That makes it 41 miles for the week. Yay! I was hoping to get over 40 miles in this week and I did it (barely).