Saturday, September 16, 2017

When a Long Run Goes Bad

Today was my final long run before taper begins for the Chicago Marathon. I had 20 miles on the schedule for today and I was determined to meet that mileage. The most I ran when training for NYC was 18, and I really wanted to hit 20 today.
I started my first miles with the pace group I coach. For some reason, the directions I printed for our route had some wrong turns in them and we ended up lost 3 times.



We cut the last portion out of the run and still ended up with 10.6 miles because of all the backtracking.



Which meant we ran past one of my favorite churches...



I always have to take a pic of that church! We also had an #almostdisney moment!



Besides those 3 wrong turns, this portion of the run was pretty awesome. I love running with my girls and we always have plenty to talk about during our long runs.
We parted ways and I headed for the Greenway to do my last 9.5 miles. I was planning on sticking to a 2:1 run/walk for the rest of my run. It was a little cooler on the Greenway, which was nice, and it's mostly flat. Of course on my way to the path, someone almost backed over me.
Seriously?
Who backs out of a parking lot without looking?



Anyway....
I start out on my run and after a couple of miles I see a familiar trio! We noticed each other at about the same time...



We gabbed for a few minutes, mostly about the hot cops all over Facebook, I'm not gonna lie, and then I started back out.
I was definitely feeling tired already, but I chugged along, sometimes doing a 2:1 and sometimes a 2:2.
At mile 13, a woman approached me asking for water. She had fallen and scraped the skin off of her palms and wanted to clean up a little. I basically poured most of my water on her hands and knees with 7 miles to go!



So now I have no water and nowhere ahead to refill, so at mile 14, I turned back early. I knew there was a water fountain back that way, and I could always double back at the end, right?



I hadn't been running since mile 13, since I didn't want to overheat, and now my left shoe is rubbing against my little toe. Honestly, this started back at mile 9 but now I was starting to lose my form. I decided it was best to keep walking, instead of risking injury for overcompensating that foot.
I finally reach the end of the trail, but I'm only at mile 18. ugh.



Shortly after I snapped this pic, I get the low battery signal. I'm not gonna lie, I threw up my hands in defeat and started to turn back. I was so mad and frustrated, and my foot really freaking hurt. I couldn't do it. Watch or no watch, proof or no proof, I was hitting that 20 mile mark. So I turned around and finished the last two miles.



I ordered Starbucks from my car, changed my clothes, (yes, I do this in the parking lot. I have one of those towels that hooks around you so you can change underneath) and limped over to Starbucks in my shiny new Oofo clogs.





That run sucked. The walking part sucked too. You know what didn't suck? Knowing that I stuck with it, finished, and now I'm in Tapertown. Oh, and that pumpkin cheesecake bar was freaking awesome.



So was my bath.

Have you ever had a run go terribly wrong?

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