Chocolate covered peanuts and mental fortitude

I had been dreading today's run since last week.  I do that.  I dread runs.  Especially runs leading up to Boston because invariably it means that on the longer runs we have to tack on additional mileage.  Today's run was 15 miles for the clinic, but 18 for those of us chasing the unicorn.  I got all bent out of shape because this means that I have to add the three miles somewhere along the course because once I get to where everyone else is finishing, there's no hope that I am going to continue on.  So then that means that I have depart from my group and, because I will be three miles behind them, I will never see them again.
It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you are running for two or three hours on a Sunday morning, it's nice to do it with people.  Plus, I have a really great group of people to run with.  Our pace leader did some stand up comedy back in the day and randomly sings show tunes.  I've run with faster and slower groups and Simon's group is, hands down, the most fun.
Long, neurotic, hyper analytical story short, Michael wanted to do a very flat route and decided to do the seawall three times.  It would help him for splits and consistency, and he was going to use his car as an aid station.  I'm not good at running in circles so I did the seawall once, hit the Cambie bridge, came back and did it a second time.
While I was out there I saw lots of runners from my clinic, including my group and everyone smiling and waving at me was a big plus.  I used the clinic's aid station twice and the car aid station once.  I cannot say enough about this day.
We're at a tail end of a Pineapple Express weather extravaganza and my other two pairs of shoes are still wet from runs that I did on Thursday and Friday.  Today it was warm, sunny and beautiful.  Vancouver's one of the most beautiful cities in the world and today was no exception.
I'd downloaded a lot of uptempo music to help me grind through today's run (mostly Skrillex and Steve Aoki) which was going to be both physically and mentally challenging.  I think the last time I ran this far was when I was training for Boston last year.  I think I reached twenty miles before I had to acknowledge that every run was making my post tibial tendinitis worse, and that there was no time to recover before the marathon.  It was the first time I had ever had to drop out of a marathon due to injury, and it was doubly painful because it was Boston and we had a whole Boston/New York vacation planned around it.
I watched from the sidelines (which I was actually thankful for since it hit 89 degrees that day and over a thousand runners needed medical treatment).
Running alone is hard.  I trained for the Edge to Edge on my own because it was in June and I asked Michael to come out and support me on the back half of some of my long runs.  My mom even came down to Kits with some chocolate covered peanuts and Gatorade so I could finish the second ten miles of a twenty miler.
Today it was just me, but there were chocolate covered peanuts in the car.  Maybe it's all in my head, but I've never had a bad run when I've had a couple of handfuls of them on a run.  They've got sugar and protein and salt: what more do you want?
It was such a good run.  I was hoping to finish it in 2:42, but I was able to bang off 8:30s and bring it in eleven minutes faster.  Runs like this are invaluable.  They go a long way to assuage the gremlins that come with, say, the last sixteen mile run that I did which sucked colossally and saw me walking up Keith Road at the end (I didn't have any peanuts that day).
So yes.  Pleased on many levels: my ankle held out admirably; I am in love with my new Asics; Skrillex and Aoki certainly can infuse any workout with much needed intensity; the city and the weather were like a slice of heaven; I was pleasantly surprised by my pace; and it was great to see so many runners out there, some of whom I knew and others that I got to recognize on their innumerable loops around the seawall.
And I need to make sure we have enough peanuts for next Sunday's 21 miler.