Mason Long Run

120 mins.
16 miles

Today's run was so relaxed and enjoyable that it almost seems like cheating to give myself credit for 16 miles. After a delicious morning of sleeping in, drinking coffee and otherwise lounging around the house, we joined up with Jordan's uncle Dave around noon to begin this jaunt. Normally I wouldn't even consider starting a long run at high noon during the summer, but it was such a gorgeous day--sunny, warm but not hot, low humidity--that there was simply no better way to spend the afternoon.

Dave acted as our tour guide for the first half of the run, and he did a fantastic job pointing out all the sights (and sites) of Mason and sharing interesting anecdotes along the way. The pace was unhurried and the weather conditions were still quite pleasant, so the first hour of the run passed almost before I realized it. We marked the halfway point by stopping back at the park where Tyler and Madison had played their games the day before, planning to take in a few minutes of Madison's game that was going on during our run. Even though I didn't really need a break, it was fun to stop for a few minutes to watch the kiddos and grab a drink and lollipop from Eloisa.

From there we detoured back to the house to drop Dave off. To be fair, he had already consumed three beers and played four hours of golf before meeting us, so we decided to let him bow out at 11 miles while we pressed on. We dropped the pace slightly for the remainder of the run but still kept things comfortable, opting to loop around the neighborhood park and bike path a few times. Once we popped back into the neighborhood at 14 I could tell Jordan was itching to pick up the pace, so I encouraged him to go for it while I jogged in the last two miles at a slower clip. I'm pretty sure this is the longest run I've done since the epic 16-mile DC tour with Jilane and Ben almost three months ago, but thanks to the relaxed pace my legs still felt decent at the end.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging poolside and prepping for Whitney's graduation ceremony, which took place at Xavier University in Cincinnati. After she successfully received her diploma we adjourned to PF Chang's for some much-needed food and drink. All in all this was pretty much a perfect Sunday.


The new graduate with her big bro and little sis Madison (Jilane's new bff)