I've reached the point in my training program where the amount of time it takes to complete each of the runs is becoming a factor. I'm a bit jealous, in fact, of the AIDS Marathon training that Kenner and Agnes are doing -- it's more weeks over all, but they never run more than 40 minutes a day in their mid-week runs. (Their training does, however, include the unbelievable-to-me final training run of 26 miles.) This week I ended up skipping my 7 mile Wednesday run because I just didn't have 80 minutes to spare, and I did my Thursday run at 10:30 pm after Apes.

So this morning when it was pouring down rain it was something of a test of will, a quick check-in of "am I really going through with all of this", to get out and run 16 miles. Fortunately, I had already arranged with Matt to run with him today and when I called to see what he felt about running in the rain his response was "I love running in the rain!"

Let me list some of the great things about this run: the rain was warm and it wasn't too bad, Matt is a delightful conversationalist, and I finished the run with plenty of energy. Let me list the terrible thing about the run: my ITBs starting killing me around mile 11. So I've been icing my knees and eating ibuprofen like candy for the rest of the day. We'll see how this goes.