Day 1,319: 16 miles

Today's long run came from an observation I made five days ago when I ran my 14.5 mile run -- my new predawn route through Atlantic Station and to my office takes 8 miles, so why don't I turn around and run that loop again for 16?

And pretty much everything worked that way, although when I was on Peachtree Street I decided to run the ridge to Marietta. But I lost nearly a mile doing that (which I had to make up in Piedmont Park at the end).

I ended up just using my lumbar bottle instead of the big CamelBak. The reason was that I would nearly always be pretty close to places where I could buy a bottle of water or Powerade if I needed it.

Just like during the 14.5-mile run, I drank some of my Gatorade in the lumbar bottle about mile 6. It was about half full when I reached my office at 7.15 miles.

There, I drank the rest of it and drank a full bottle of water before refilling the bottle and changing my shirt.

I didn't start drinking the water until about 9 miles and by 10th and Peachtree streets at 10.15 miles, it was all gone.

In between then and about 11 miles, I started to get hungry. I ate two bags of Sport Beans, which kept me pretty good the rest of the way.

I made it to the Atlantic Station turnaround and then stopped into the Publix at about 12.4 miles to get more water and to change my second shirt.

It was 14 miles on Peachtree before 10th Street. Running along the edge of 10th, I knew I wouldn't have enough distance for 16 miles so I entered the bowl and exited the park on Park Place and headed back up to Virginia.

The run was pretty good. Hopefully I will use this course as a basic template and continue to add on loops in Piedmont Park at the end.

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Also today I broke out my new shoes, which I'll use for long runs. The first few miles my right foot didn't seem to like this idea, but they were perfectly fine the rest of the way.

Time: 6:17 a.m.
Temp: 76 degrees, 79 percent humidity start (end 77 degrees, 76 percent humidity)
Gear: CFSST (Cherry Blossom, Patagonia Red), SST (Levi), shorts, Nike Air Pegasus+ 26/C.