I ran a variation of what I call the South Island perimeter route, as it follows the coastline as closely as possible. The weather this weekend was unseasonably warm: 70˚ high was 20˚ over average. This was my first marathon since the BURT ultramarathon on 2/10, and I felt the extra miles.

Partly to have a hilly run, and partly out of a desire to draw a new map, I ended up with a strange one here. Fortunate timing, as I managed to hit the dry sunny part of the day between two rains.

I’m trying to capitalize on yesterday’s hard effort in order to train my legs to function while tired. Haven’t done a lot of back-to-back long runs yet this year, though they were a staple of my training last year. Fun fact: the feature picture shows alpacas at one of several farms on “old” McDonald Ave…I’m not making this up.

Looping from west to east and back again the length of the Island, with a quick stop at Rockaway Beach for the stunning views across Puget Sound. Bonus: got a small bit of “graupel” (like little hail) during the run!

I set out to do a fast 15k, with 2 miles each for warmup/cooldown. Ended up setting PRs for 10k, 15k, and 10mi distances!