The color red

Hello!! The theme of today is RED. Yep, its been pretty much a red letter day :-) I woke up this morning to a wonderful winter snowstorm.....so not conducive to the 15 miler on the books!! I lingered over breakfast and coffee (banana almond oat bran...mmmmm!) and played on facebook, willing the snow away. No such luck. Grumbling to the husband, I plotted out a 5 mile route with the lofty intention to run it 3 times, I prefaced my run with
"Its cold.
I dont wanna.
I'm probably just going to run two loops and call it a day.
If you see me in 20 minutes, dont be surprised."
Way to be awesome, Rae. I very grudgingly layered up with my tights, over shorts, 3 layers on top, ear covers, RED gloves, and off I went.
The first 5 miles rocked my face off. I give credit to my excellent playlist, great breakfast, and sure pace (trying so hard to keep it to 9:00 miles!! (overall goal of run 9:10-9:30 pace). I also credit this:

And all the lovely drivers that obeyed them. The roads were total crap, sidewalks buried in powder, so I ran on the side of the road as far over as possible. Success.
I began loop two with another beautiful RED treat:

I learned on my last long run that jelly beans dont work in the winter, and before I resorted to the dreaded goo, I decided to give these a shot. Success! They were cold, not frozen, sweet, tangy, and sugary. Perfect. I sailed through the first part of loop 2, lost in the wonderful thoughts that long runs can bring about life, until I hit Eddy road and a wind tunnel. Suddenly I couldnt run in a straight line...yech. The next 2 miles were a complete sufferfest-I had entered the PAIN CAVE. The pain cave, as any endurance athlete will tell you, is as much a test of your mental toughness as it is physical. Can I do this? Should I stop? ....who would know if I stopped??
The unfortunate answer? I WOULD. And that pushes me more than any coach ever could. I rounded out loop 2 with my arsenal of mental tricks that Ive learned during ironman training. Now, here was the big question: do we go for a hat trick or leave the two loops as it is? I took a deep breath.
OF COURSE WE DO IT!!
I took a slug of water and trekked on. It was time to pull out another RED friend....metaphorically, I put on my rose colored glasses with memories of miles 1-8 and willed my last 3rd to be the same, sweet, somewhat effortless gait. And it (sort of) worked!! While the last loop wasn't nearly as fast or as easy, and I nearly fell over due to winds at times, i finished the run strong and triumphantly headed home.
Workout stats:
Distance: 15.06 miles
Time: 2:17:24
Pace: 9:08
Its a red letter day, folks. As Edison once said, "Success is 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration". I disagree, Mr. Edison. I think we need to flip that one around! :-)