Half Way There!!

Can you believe it? This weekends long run was 13 miles--exactly half way. It was hard to think that after finishing that run, in a race I would still have half to go. But you know you've ran a long way when your saying to yourself "only 3 more miles"! Nevertheless, this was an amazing run and an amazing feat in my running life. In my endless search of finding places to run in Sioux City, I eventually gave up and decided to run along one of the main roads and just do a "there and back". I parked at a McDonald's in the middle of town--which might I add was not a good idea. Finishing 13 miles with only a few pieces of melon in your stomach and seeing the sight of a "2 for 3$" breakfast deal in the window is hard to stomach. What I would have given to had my wallet on me and devour the tasty goodness of two sausage egg mcmuffins and a hash brown. Then again, it's probably not a good idea to fill your stomach with fat and grease after such a hard exercise. Anyways, I ran out of the city to what eventually became the country and talk about beautiful. There's something about running under a cloudless sky at 8AM in the middle of no where that really makes you love life. There was nothing around me but pasture, cornstalks, and horses at the turnaround (oh and did I mention llamas??). Other than a few cars and trucks, I was all by myself for a good 4 miles. If you were wondering exactly what animals I ran by (which I know you were!), I saw a pony, a lot of horses, 2 (yes two) alpacas, some very noisy chickens and roosters, a doe and 3 fawn, and a dead cat. That last one was right in my way and made me jump back a few feet. Of course eventually I wandered back into town, into the traffic (at least what traffic there was at 930 on a Saturday) and back to civilization. Ahh to live in I-O-W-A...