I wanted to make it to my daughter's dance class at 10:15, so I got up at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday to run. Wolfed down a bagel and some water and changed clothes three times before I finally hit the road at 6 a.m.

Why three clothes changes? Mostly because the clothes I planned to wear were all black and, well, I forgot to consider that the sun doesn't come up until 7 a.m. I was worried about my visibility, but not worried enough to wear my Illuminite vest or coat for fear I'd be carrying the thing for 3 hours. I finally decided to throw a very thin white long-sleeve t-shirt overtop my black T-shirt and stuck some reflective stickers on my back (go ahead, laugh, but..I was hell bent on not having to carry anything and wouldn't have minded throwing the white long-sleeve T away if I needed to). I was later damn glad I had the long-sleeve T.

I headed for the Bayfront Connector trail and made it down to 12th Street in an hour. It occurred to me as I was running that it was all downhill -- which meant I'd be running uphill on the way back.

The trail was a nice run with lots of fun stuff to look at including factories, boats, water and, of course, the city of Erie's composting field and the waste water treatment plant. :-)

I made it to my 1/2 way point in 1:40 or so and bought a Gatorade at Country Fair. As soon as I started back it occured to me why the first 10 miles seemed so easy -- the wind was at my back. And, now, it was in my face -- on the bayfront and it was FREEZING!

I was quite grateful for my long-sleeve T-shirt then and seriously contemplated heading back to Country Fair to see if I could pick up a pair of gloves.

Instead, I picked up the pace with the sole purpose of getting the heck off the bayfront as fast as I possibly could because I knew it wouldn't be as cold (or windy) when I got back on the Connector trail.

Made it back to 12th Street in about 2:30. I knew that I had an hour from there to home and was then convinced there was no way my run was 20 miles. I must've figured something wrong -- no way I thought I had run that far that quickly. I started thinking of ways to extend my run -- going all the way to Behrend, etc.

By the time I got to 38th street -- I was pretty damn certain it WAS 20 miles and if it wasn't -- I didn't really care anymore. I was tired and I was no longer entertaining ideas of extending the run.

Got home around 9:40 -- 3:40 minutes on my feet.

Being the anal mileage-obsessed runner that I am, I had to go out & measure the route in my car later that day -- I was wrong...it wasn't 20 miles ... it was 21!

I felt pretty good later that day. Some stiffness and soreness -- nothing more than could be expected from running for 3 1/2 hours.

As for running by myself, well...it wasn't as bad as I thought. The time actually passed pretty quickly and I didn't allow myself to wimp out and walk up the hills like I sometimes do when I'm alone!

I am very much looking forward to my "fall back" week this week -- much lower mileage this week:

Monday: 5
Tuesday: 8
Wednesday: 5
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 8
Saturday 12 (a mere 12!)
Sunday: Rest (eat lots of Easter chocolate)