The Long Run

Last Saturday I was scheduled to run 9 miles as part of my training for the Freedom's Run half marathon.

We've been really busy and I ended up either biking or running for 12 days straight. That's no biggie for a seasoned runner, but I am far from seasoned...other than being a bit salty from sweating. (Reminds me of the first few lines of The Long Run by the Eagles)

We were heading out of town for Labor Day and Bill skillfully worked it so that I would be on my own, in the woods, far from the bathroom with 4 kids while he had to work part of the weekend. I knew there was no way I could get in a long run on my own while camping so I ran Friday morning before we left.

I'm also experimenting with fueling. I've been using sport beans but they're not cutting it for me. I should eat the whole bag at once, but that's just too much chewing, plus that many jelly beans at once upsets my pathetic stomach.

So I splurged and bought a blueberry/pomegranite Roctane (only flavor they had) and a variety of Gu. I figured I'd give the Roctane a try on my long run. I also decided to try a slightly different route since I'd have to run on a road with no shoulder and a 45 mph speed limit for about a mile to reach the turn around at 4.5 miles.

I woke up Friday morning just not feeling like running. I dreaded getting out of bed and it felt like a death march to the end of my driveway. Red flag maybe??

Made it down the first really big hill and half way up the next even bigger hill and had to walk. My legs were crying, but I figured if I walked a bit everyone would play nice and I'd be ok.

Hit the ~ 3.5 mile mark and then turned off on the side road instead of continuing straight on the 45 mph road. It seemed harmless enough until I came to the top of a very big hill. It went down forEVER and I groaned out loud. Down I went knowing that coming back up was going to be HARD.

By this time my legs were DONE. I was done. I was also a little more than 4 hilly miles from home. What better time to break out the Roctane. I think I barfed in my mouth when I ate that stuff. Oh merciful days it was bad. But I choked it down figuring I was going to need all the help I could get to make it back.

I started walking up the hill and ended up walking for quite a ways.  I was half way up the last major hill when Bill drove up; he wanted to be sure I wasn't roadkill since I had been gone so long. Oh it was SO tempting to get in that car and ride home! But I knew I completely regret it so I soldiered on alternating between walking and running.

In the end I went only 8.17 miles so I was far short of 9 miles, but I didn't see any sense in torturing myself further. Plus I knew I was going to get plenty of exercise keeping track of Shane while camping.

In a nutshell, my long run stunk like a big ol' skunk. I'm looking forward to a little bit of redemption this Saturday as I tackle 10 miles!