15 miles in the middle of the road

 I was solo last night, had an order of broccoli chicken for dinner and went to bed early. My plan was to be up early and get in my first 20 mile run before Church at 0900. I slept restlessly looking at the clock every 30 minutes as if I had to check to see it was still working. I was quite annoyed to wake prior to my 0300 alarm sounding unable to get back to sleep, red numbers glaring at me daring me to roll over.
 I dressed, ate a bowl of oat meal, warmed up and was out the door by 0400. I was nervous, pre-race nervous, uncertain of what to expect. I had never run 20 miles. I carried water, gels, my trusty reflective vest and head lamp, "was I missing anything?"
 It was 20F cooler than yesterday mornings bike ride. The moon shown like the sun blocking out the twinkle of the stars, not a cloud in the sky. A perfect morning for a run.
 I ran in the middle of the road, I did not anticipate seeing any cars for a few hours. If you run you understand running in the middle of the road. If you don't: It is liberating! Like running bare foot in the grass. While running in the middle of the road you have room to move. Running on the top of the crown in the middle of the road is flat you are not compensating for the pitch to the ditch with every stride. When you run on the side of the road you feel you are being drawn towards the ditch by some strange anti running power, you do not have that when your in the middle.You'll find less debris in the middle of the road less worry equals forward progress. I did have to side step a road kill skunk but I had room to make that adjustment, I was in the middle of the road. It was more of a challenge to hold my breath for as long as it took me to run through the smell, one just zips by it in a car.
 As I headed into mile 15 Farther Scott turned past me giving me a wave and toot of encouragement he was only the second car I had seen this morning. Sadly I knew I had to relinquish the road soon, cars passed more frequently now some giving me wide respectful birth others seemingly attempting to read my t-shirt. No matter I'd run my first 20 miles most of it in the middle of the road and I felt fantastic!