The tale of the 20 miler-Part 1

**Disclaimer**Just like the actual run itself, this post may be epic in proportions.  It's been a while since I detailed a long run to you all, so why not do it now? Sit back, grab your favorite beverage, and enjoy.  I also cannot be responsible for the use of naughty words.  Feel free to skip over those that are offensive to you.

Twenty F-ing miles (I won't bust the big dog out.  Yet.).  This is what I was thinking ALL week.  I was wound tighter than a spool of string as I listened to the wind HOWL outside my window Friday morning at 5:30 am.  I checked weather.com for the millionth time and there were no changes.  Chance of thunderstorm and winds at 20-25 mph.  At least I'd be distracted for the moment as I rallied the kids to get ready for school.  As I finished brushing my teeth, Sara walked in the house.  She didn't want to be alone thinking about the run, so she played bus driver with me as we shuttled a car full of kids off to school. We dropped one of our beloved crates in it's rightful water stop and headed to Rellis, our end point, to wait for Lisa.
As we waited there, and used the potty quickly, I couldn't help but think "Holy Shit, the next time we come back here it will be about 4 hours later and we will have RUN the entire way from East Lansing!".
Momma Relli even thought we had fallen off our rockers.

Our beloved crates...always ready for the Divas

Lisa arrived and she looked about as freaked out as we were.  On the ride, we bantered back and forth about weather, the technicalities of when to eat our GU and drink water, how much water we would drink, etc. Type A runners...gotta love it.  We dropped a meijer bag full of water in Old Towne Lansing (water stop #1) and prayed it would still be there an hour later.  Lots of sketchiness surrounding that water stop, but more on that later...

We make it to the start of our run in East Lansing at Plante Moran, the accounting firm where Lisa's husband worked.  We all take advantage of the basement potty because let's face it, for the next 3 1/2 hours we could be peeing with weeds sticking up our butts for all we know...

We set out on our journey which will take us through Michigan State University campus, on the Lansing River trail, passing Potter Park Zoo and downtown Lansing.  We will then head through Old Towne Lansing and up Turner Road (with lots of interesting things to look at...).  Then we will weave through 3 subdivisions in DeWitt, run through country roads and finally make our way to downtown DeWitt and our final destination: Rellis for beer and pizza.  We will run through 2 counties, several cities and townships, 5 water stops, 1 official cheering section and 1 church.  Yes, everyone needs a little Jesus at mile 18.

Find out all about it on my next post...