A tale of two runs.

It was the best of runs, it was the worst of runs. It was a run of happiness, it was a run of despair. It was a run of joy and confidence, it was a death march.

Okay, they were two different runs, actually. One week apart. One was 7 laps of a 2.2 mile course (per GPS, the sign lies and says 2.5), which is about 1.5 miles of uphill, a steep downhill, and the remainder fairly flat, and the other was 15 miles of almost all flat asphalt.

So, about the same distance, one with noticeably harder terrain. The easier terrain had more water, both runs had companionship for the first 7 miles or so.

There just happens to be almost 30 minutes of time difference between the two runs. And the tougher run has the better time.

I was feeling pretty shot, confidence-wise, from that second run, until I did my 20-miler on Saturday. Easy, breezy, little water, no gu or gatorade, and still finished in well under 3 hours. I'm feeling a lot more confident about Chicago now.