This season has been hard. I won’t lie, I have barely been running on my “runs”. It’s been hot, my arm goes numb right around the surgery scar, I’ve been dehydrated–I have a thousand excuses. I kept going out there and doing the miles, but I haven’t felt good about it.
On Sunday, after eating cookies and bagels all day, and procrastinating for most of the afternoon watching football, I headed out for a run with Ricky. We left sometime after seven and arrived home shortly before nine. We ran down Golden Gardens way to watch the sunset, crossed the locks, stopping to checkout the empty fish ladder (just in case there was a late salmon), and ran across the Ballard Bridge. That was about 7ish miles. I felt great. I wasn’t tired. I was popping (or rather sucking and slurping) my Gu and drinking a Gatorade G2 mixed with water.
Running across the bridge always makes me happy, but at night, it’s something special. We were on the Westbound side of the bridge so the cars were coming right at me in the night. Their lights creating shadows across the sidewalk and the noise drowning out any cues from runkeeper. I felt great. I could have ran for miles.
Then we came off the bridge, ran past some bus waiting smokers and bam, that hill. Fifteenth Street loomed ahead. One giant hill that had to be passed to get home. Weighing the other options (up Leary to 24th or cross market to 24th), no other options were better. Part of me wanted to cut a left and head to Fremont for some Dumplings at Pel’ Meni (the Dumpling Tzar take LevelUp) and then just take Uber home.
I faced that hill with a “Nothing can Defeat me Attitude”. It laughed at me. I made it to Market, then took a walk break. Decided to run one block, walk the next. Except, some of those blocks were really steep. Took a long walk break to suck down some Gu and refuel, turned down 65th and ran all the way to 24th, and then headed up that hill. It defeated me as well. I was tired. About a mile from home and those hills were too much. We turned down 70th and ran a few blocks, then walked up some hill, then ran some more. Finally, not wanting to walk in, I ran from 77th to 80th around the corner and up my street to my house. I ended it running (well and then walked past my house to cool down).
It took almost three hours to do 11 miles. There was a bathroom break, some slowdown due to Ricardo getting a side stitch, a stop at the locks, a few minutes wasted trying to figure out how to get home from Magnolia detouring around construction, but in the end it was still just a slow 11 miles.
But it was 11 miles.
It was 11 miles where I didn’t feel like giving up or puking once. I felt good (except those last three miles straight up hill where I felt okay). There were a few moments where I actually enjoyed myself. It was 11 miles. And I came home feeling like I could keep running (downhill!!!!).
I have 39 days until the Epcot Wine and Dine Half, 61 days to the Rock n Roll Las Vegas 1/2 with Team Challenge and 107 Days until Tinkerbell Half.
Plenty of time to perfect my cadence, stop holding my breath, and just be faster! I’m on a path. Maybe a screwy topsy turvy path, but I’ll make it!
Thanks to everyone who donated after my 11 miles (my calves felt better with each dollar).
I’m off to Disneyland for a few days. I’ll try to post photos of me running around Disney (already mapped on Runkeeper). In the meantime, please RSVP for my fundraiser on October 13, donate a few dollars towards Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation (my mom will thank you for that too), and generally have fun!
