"28k"

My first 28k! Only it wasn't quite that distance, because I hit 28k and thought weeeelll, my race is 28.7k, so why don't I just go 28.7k so I can say I've done the race distance - even if only on the pavement. And then I hit 28.7k and thought weeeellll, I'm really almost at 29k, so I might as well make it an even 29k.
And then I hit 29k and thought weeeellll, I really could just round it to an even 30k. Such a nice round number!
But in the end I kept it to 29k. I am, after all, running again tomorrow! No sense pushing it. Besides, I noticed a big difference when I hit 26k. My legs started to get tremors. Nothing serious, but enough that I slowed my pace down considerably (to a 7min pace) as I worried that if I pushed it faster my poor legs might completely give out on me. I knew if I fell at this stage, I wouldn't move the rest of the day.
My shins, in their steadfast loyalty, didn't even flicker at all the pounding they took. Good, shins! Good! I treated them to a nice ice massage at the end as a reward.
And I think my head is starting to swell. The squad has been so kind to me and have had so much to say about my improvement I may have started blushing. Thanks, guys! Your support is overwhelming!
So on today's run I started at 5am and did a fast-paced 5k with those running 28-37k, and those who had a time limit to get to work. I was looking forward to joining up with the group and going at a nice easy 6min to 6.30min pace.
Only we didn't. Somehow the fast people got in front and did what they do best, which is going fast. The rest of us struggled to keep up. We stuck together as a group until the 6k water stop (11k for me!) and then decided to split off a little bit, so us slow people could settle in to a nice 6.10min pace. Ahhh, relief!
I went out 10k with those doing 20k. I could have gone on to do a turn-around with the 24k people, but knowing how fast they would be, I decided I was happier to go slow and easy for the entire way back and tack on a bit extra at the end, as I did last week. When you have a Garmin watch and know exactly how many km you've gone, it's not exactly a hard thing to mentally go those few k's further after everyone else has stopped.
For a change of scenery and a bit of added challenge (because why not?) I kept going straight at the end instead of turning around. This meant that instead of a nice flat riverside run my final 4k was up and down hills. But that was okay, because my pace was slowing considerably without the group, even before I added hills into the mix.

Total time: 3.01.28
Total distance: 29.00k
Total elevation: unknown. Hey, technology isn't perfect!
Average pace: 6.15min/km

Now it's time to break out the chocolate, a good book, and eat, read, and sleep the day away!