What 35 miles feels like.

That's right. 35 miles. I ran it on saturday. I've run farther twice, but both times were for the Knickerbocker 60K (37.2 miles). This was definitely the farthest I've run solo, and I also ran it sans ipod.

At Run Club, I decided I was going to go for 30 miles, but then I saw and discussed the impending weather forecast. I was initially excited about running in the pouring rain. I wanted to go find some mud and put the trail shoes to use, but then I was told it was supposed to hail. I figured I'd see what I could get in before the weather got too bad.

I left the apartment just before 1 p.m. The front wasn't supposed to hit until 4, but as I walked out the door the rain started. The rain came down light at first and then strengthened. Several cycles happened before I saw my first signs of lightening. I toyed with the idea of returning home due to the lightening, but decided to stick it out and see if it abated. Luckily, I saw no more lightening, so I continued over the Williamsburg Bridge and into Manhattan.

A short jaunt down to the Manhattan Bridge put me back in Brooklyn and on my way to Prospect Park. Or at least I thought. After correcting a few wrong turns, I made the loop in Prospect Park a couple times tromping through as much mud as possible. I left the park and ran over the Brooklyn Bridge and looped around the bottom of Manhattan.

After a quick stop at the Runner's Station (the new location is Harrison and the WSH), I made my way up to 14th street and made a quick stop at JackRabbit Sports to say a couple "hellos" and use the facilities. After that, I ran to the East side and made my way back home via the Williamsburg Bridge.

That was 35 miles. I was pretty tired afterwards, but I didn't feel any worse than I do after a 20 miler. I had no muscle soreness on sunday. The only thing that kept me from doing 20 on sunday was that I turned my ankle pretty bad at mile 25. Ten miles on that ankle has resulted in a fairly sore upper ankle. Its really amazing what I've trained my body to handle. 35 miles and my body was ready to go on sunday.

Two weeks until I do my 40 miler, which will be my longest run to date.

Wednesday is race day. I have to make the decision tomorrow if my ankle will be ok to run. I really want to race the 5 miler on wednesday morning.

In case you didn't hear, the 100m World Record was broken by Usain Bolt, who was running the event as speed work for longer races. He's not even a 100m guy!