A Saturday without a run. I felt kind of lost.

For the first time since mid-January I did not run on a Saturday.

What? Two weeks out from my second spring half marathon? What was I thinking?

Well I was sitting in a conference room in Madison for the final day of a two-day training session for work. If you had asked me two months ago, my plans would have included going to Madison, crashing with a friend and then running Crazylegs, an 8K through downtown Madison and the University of Wisconsin campus. But then the bosses told me I had to go to this training session instead.

So Saturday morning I'm sitting in a conference room learning about alternative story formats and knowing that just a few miles away thousands of people are running through campus and crossing the finish line inside Camp Randall Stadium. Sigh. All I wanted to do was run.

And Sunday morning I got to. I met up with two of the girls from my Fleet Feet training group at the park and we set out for a run. They just had 9 miles on the schedule since they're both running a half marathon in Indianapolis this weekend. Me? The schedule said 15 so I was planning on running 9 with them and then setting out for the remaining miles solo.

The run was fabulous. It was great getting a chance to catch up with the girls, hear about each other's race plans and talk about upcoming running adventures (I've got a big one...but I'm keeping it under wraps until after Green Bay. I know. Mean.).

It was a little bit windy Sunday morning - when is it ever NOT windy lately - but for the most part it wasn't bad. Until we hit Mile 7ish. Then we found ourselves running smack dab into a constant 25 to 30 mile per hour wind! OMG! So hard to run. It literally felt like we were standing still. And of course part of this was an uphill portion of our run. Figures. But we battled. The wind (and hills) wasn't going to beat us. We finished up 9 miles, said our goodbyes and parted.

I knew I still had miles left. I decided to head back to my parents' house and get them done in their neighborhood. I thought maybe the houses would at least give me a little bit of cover. Nope. Still windy. Still brutal. I made it about a quarter-mile before I turned and headed back to their house.

I was done battling the wind. But I wasn't done with the run. I headed into the basement and pounded out another 3 miles on their treadmill. Not quite the 15 the schedule called for, but still a good 12 miles two weeks before a half marathon. A 12-mile run that was by no means easy. I'll take it.

Oh and just a heads up. Next April? I will be running Crazylegs. No question about it.