18 MILES!!!!!!!

Yesterday I ran 18 miles. 1-8 Miles.
When I told my cousin Kelli that I was running this distance this weekend her response was "Geez why don't you just run to Gretna!"
Hmmm....
To give you an idea of how incredibly far this is---I went ahead and mapquested the distance from my house to Gretna. Surely that can't be 18 miles. Gretna is at least a 25 if not 30 minute drive from my house. Gretna has got to be MUCH further than 18 miles.
Nope! Apparently the route that Mapquest chose (which we all know is probably unnecessarily long) Gretna is 18.6 miles from my house!
For those reading this that are familiar with Omaha and the surrounding areas this might be impressive. For those of you not familiar with this area--just go ahead and be impressed that I ran this far...
Thankfully Anthony ran with me again. I seriously don't know what I would do without him on these runs--it would be sooooo boring! Its not that Anthony dances, sings, or provides any other form of entertainment while I run, but we can at least talk and take comfort in the fact that we are not alone in this running millions of miles thing.
That and he has a Garmin so I don't have to think about where I'm going. I just run till he tells me to stop and turn around! Its nice. It would be even nicer if I had my own Garmin. But I digress...
Anyway--Anthony and I met at 7am at Peak Performance on 78th & Cass to run the keystone trail. We ran north to Fort street and then ran back to our cars to catch a drink. As we were getting our drinks I told Anthony that I didn't want to know how far we'd gone. In fact I decided that I didn't want to know any distance till we turned around again to head back to the car.
In my mind I thought "we've probably gone at least 5 miles." So even though I didn't want to know our distance the entire rest of the run I tried to estimate where we were in mileage. BAD IDEA.
After this pit stop we ran south on the trail.....and we kept running...and running...and running. I kept saying "are we there yet?" and "Okay so have we gone further than 10 miles? Yes or no?" Anthony would NOT give in till we stopped. But I started to get more and more worried as we passed certain "landmarks" along the way. Again for those of you familiar with Omaha--here are some "landmarks we passed" Pacific Street...ok no problem. Still feeling pretty strong. L street--piece of cake. Q street. hmm. Fun Plex--ok...shouldn't we be turning around by now? And then I said to Anthony "we don't have to run all the way to Seymour Smith ballpark, do we?" And he was like "NO! No way. We'll be done before we hit that."
LIAR.
Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, Anthony stops. "We can turn around now!" he says. "Oh and by the way...there is Seymour Smith ballpark. I guess I was wrong!"
Yeah I GUESS!
So then I think to myself--we've probably done at least 13 miles. Only 5 more to the car. NO. We had only gone 12 miles. (I know "only" 12 miles! But when you are running 18 and you still have another 6 miles to go...hello! I was pissed!)
But I knew it would be ok because I didn't have to wonder anymore--"when will we turn around? When will this be over..." blah blah blah--because I knew where the end point was.
So we turned around and ran...and ran...and ran. And at about mile 14--there was no more talking. We were both just really ready to be done.
We finished the run in 3 hours 12 minutes! Whew! And I can't tell you how incredibly happy I was to stop running! Overall I felt pretty good. Sore and tired, but hey, that's normal, right? Its not every day one runs 18 miles.
THANK GOD.
But I have to say I am proud that I finished the run and that I felt good. Even though my last week of training sucked and my runs didn't go so well, this long run went well and that is the important thing. I consider 18 miles to be a HUGE milestone in my training. One step closer to being ready for 26.2!
This weekend is a "break" in the long runs. We only have to do 13. HA! Just a half-marathon--no biggie!