Long(er) Run

So today I embarked on the very first long run for the Space Coast Marathon (http://www.spacecoastmarathon.com/) in November.  (Side note - not sure if I'm going to do the full or the half yet, going to see how the training goes).  Anyway, I met up with Rhonda round 6 am (because I was late) and we started from Longleaf into Starkey Park.


Starkey Park is beautiful!  If you haven't been there before, here is a link to the trails available. 

And, the Longleaf trail now hooks right up to the Starkey bike trail.  You can also access the Suncoast Parkway via Starkey Park.  I've seen just about every animal on runs out there, snakes, armadillos, lots of deer, possums, and random others.  Bottom line, is that it's a beautiful and relaxing place to run, walk, or ride.


The one thing about running in Florida in the summertime - you HAVE to start early.  In fact, next week will probably be starting around 5:30 (if I can make it on time - haha) so that we have more time in before the brutal sun comes up. 


Starting off, things were great.  I was a little sore from the Friday night race - I did what Ben always tells me to do - "suck it up, buttercup" and kept going.  We decided to run out four miles and back another four and then drive into the park for the famous Strider's social hour.


All in all, the running was good.  Kept it way under 10:00 minute miles (which is the goal) and got to chat with some of my long-lost running buddies at social hour.  Especially now that the run is done and in the books, I'm still feeling my runner's high.


Now, it's off to Orlando for my friend Kelly's bachelorette party.  We are doing an 80s pub crawl, check out a picture of me and Amanda  from last year's event:

Have a great Saturday! :)