Furlough day long run

So today was my furlough day. Many thanks to the governator for the day off and the accompanying paycut!! Anyhow, in an effort to not put my furlough day to waste, I decided to use it to stretch my long run out to ninety minutes. Rain was in the forecast for midmorning, so I thought I'd get out there early to miss that, so I started running at 8:30. While it wasn't raining it was overcast and slightly chilly - in other words, perfect running weather. When I did my last long run, 75 minutes, it was a little later in the day, and a little warmer, and I think I paced myself wrong, because when I got to the end of the run, I just thought I was going to die, or at least vomit. Happily I managed to avoid doing either! So today, I decided to pace myself slower by breaking up the run with stretches of short walks. So more or less, I ran for 20 minutes, then walked for a couple of minutes and continued on in that pace.

My favorite place to run is the American River Parkway. I usually cross the footbridge in Fair Oaks, and head upriver toward the Sac State Acquatic center and then back again. But that isn't quite long enough for 90 minutes, so instead I headed downriver. My plan was to run downriver until I hit about 50 minutes, and then head back. I had never run further than the Bannister Park bridge in that direction before, so it was good to get a change of scenery. You can see my route here. Because it was Friday, it wasn't too crowded on the parkway. And it is really a lovely run. I ran from the upper Sunrise are to the lower Sunrise area. Because the trail, the Jedediah Smith Memorial trail, winds through the recreation areas, sometimes you're close to the river and sometimes you're not. So it's heavily wooded in some areas, and more open in others. There's also a fair amount of interesting wildlife. There are warning signs for mountain lions (why are they down near a river if they're called mountain lions? there's no mountain) but luckily I didn't see them. I did have to run through a flock of turkeys though. They let me pass without pecking me too much. More information on the Jedediah Smith Trail can be found here.

Anyhow, perhaps it was the perfect running weather, or the time of day, or the slower pace I took, but it was a very good run. I ran almost 8.5 miles and I am planning to stretch it out to 10 miles next week on my next furlough day, following the same route, just going a little further!

Also, I really would like photos of the route but obviously I don't carry a camera on my run. However, we are currently dogsitting for some friends who are in Argentina. So perhaps we'll take their dog, Linus, for a walk on that route. That could be fun!