Running in the Rain

We've not had much luck with the weather on our long runs lately and today's started off wet again.  However it was a very different type of rain to last week's downpour.  Today's rain was just the right type for a run - not too cold either so the rain kept you nicely refreshed.
Three of us started out on the 18 mile route but only 2 of us finished it!  Tina, who is well known for her sense of direction, or rather lack of it, decided to do 3 laps rather than follow the route.  She actually did 18.7miles doing that so well done to her.
That left Sylvia and myself on the traditional route.  As per plan we started out with the intention of running 10 miles at marathon pace.  My splits for those miles were: 9:31, 9:48, 9:43, 9:43, 9:15, 9:29, 9:18, 9:48, 9:25 and 9:19.  It was quite an undulating route with a big hill at mile 7 to 8, which took me a while to get back to pace after getting up it.  I'd taken my gel at 6.5 miles, practising taking it on the move.
The rain started to ease off and my original plan had been to take the next 8 miles slower.  Running with Sylvia though we got into a comfortable pace so kept going at that.  I took my second gel at mile 14, which I was glad of 2 miles later.  The final splits were: 9:38, 9:26, 9:32, 9:48, 10:00, 9:59 and 10:11.  We finished the run in 2 hours 54 minutes.
I'd started to feel it in my legs before we finished running.  I walked home and could feel my muscles stiffening up.  After stretching, I ran a cold bath and tried to sit in that - not that I managed very long!  Coming downstairs after my shower, my legs were very stiff.  I have very stiff kneecaps which don't move as they should, meaning the muscles around it have to work harder.  And they let me know that this afternoon!  
By now it was a lovely sunny day, so after lunch I took the dog out for a walk.  Much as its tempting to stay on the sofa after a long run, a walk can help muscle recovery and gets muscles use to having to work when they're tired.  Also its hard to relax when the dog is nagging you for its walk!  Now that's done, I can put my feet up in front of the rugby.