John 8:32 "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." NIV

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Broken Promise

Today I had promised TriGuy I would take him to 16 miles. Well, sometimes you make promises you break, despite your efforts.

A little history: On Monday when I ran 10.3 with BigC and then 2 hours later ran 6.2 with Bob, TriGuy said I was insane and that he could not run that far. I KNOW he can. Actually, he went 15+ already. And you and I know that if you can run 15, you can certainly run 16.

So I said, I would take him to 16 as long as he promised not to run under 9 min miles for the first 13... and if we felt good, we could pick it up for the last 3. He agreed, we set a time, and were prepared.

The one thing that was not in our favor was the snow. I had thought we would get the snow over night; but instead it was snowing as we started with minimal snow on the ground. After about a mile, I knew this was going to be a long run... in more ways than one. By mile 2 we had snow stuck to our eyebrows and eye lashes. I wished I had thought to wear my visor. By mile 5, the paved path was slick and it was hard to run in the snow. It was almost like running in sand, but it was only about 1/2 inch of snow.

I was not prepared for how hard running in the snow would be. Snow would stick to my shoes my ankles, calves, and hams worked hard to keep me going. At mile 7 I needed a porta-potty which apparently all had been removed due to winter - really? People still run in the winter. While I was tempted to "cop-a-squat" I kept trudging along. Poor TriGuy was barely running trying to stay with me... I was SOOOOO slow. I think I even had a 10 min mile once - but there was a HUGE hill... hill + snow = NO FUN!

We turned around at mile 8 and headed home. The snow stopped at some point, but we were already cold and at 13 we stopped and walked. With the hopes of only walking 1/2-3/4 mile up a huge hill, I tried to run again, but my mojo was gone. Once I started to walk, it was really hard to get the momentum back and ALL of the pains emerged. My ankles hurt. My left IT band near the knee hurt. My hams hurt. Total: 13.47 miles in 2:04:24

We walked a cold 3 miles home. I felt like a failure, but TriGuy was happy to have a long run in the books... as was I. As I walked by my house, the kids were sledding. I stayed and watched until I was just frozen solid. I headed home and took at least a 30 minute shower and stretched. It felt good. After wards, I put on my RunningSkirts.com compression socks on. (But I really want to win these CEP socks, so DON'T go HERE to try to win) And yes, they are still on.

Total for this week is 55 miles and 35 of those were running... I guess I should look at the 1/2 marathon training plan to see what I should be running right now. I hope to get a couple shorter runs with Bob in this week. 
How was your long run today?

3 comments:

XLMIC said...

My hat surely goes off to you! 16 in snow like that…ambitious! Getting 13 out of those conditions is an awe-inspiring accomplishment! I remember running in snow like that (long ago) and it was NO FUN! Not to mention treacherous. The word "failure" is not what comes to mind whan I read your post. :)

Karen said...

Wow, I'm impressed. You're way braver than I!

Caratunk Girl said...

Great job - running in the snow is like running in sand on a beach.

Um yeah, 10 min mile climbing a hill in the snow? Not slow. At least for me! Great job!