8 Brutal Miles (Sundays Long Run)

It's late, I know - I typed it out on Sunday, but forgot to post it ;0)

I knew it was coming, for me it was just a matter of when. The awful run that everyone experiences at least once during training. Up until Sunday all of my training runs had been great. I was looking forward to each of them, I was making great strides on my mile times; all was well in Kelli’s running world!! I had an 8 mile run this weekend. Since I went on the Scaly Mountain hike on Saturday, I decided I would push my 8 mile run back to Sunday.

I got up at 6am, got ready, took the dogs out and headed for the river (I was meeting some other instructors at the Chattahoochee River for our run). The run started out okay; that lasted about 3 minutes. I hit about 0.5 miles and thought to myself, how on earth am I going to go another 7.5 miles. I seriously thought to myself if I stop now and go home, I could still make the 9am service at church! Kyle came back to run with me (he was bouncing between Ryan & I) at about mile 1. I told him I was struggling & he tells me, “That, oh, that was just the first mile. That was warm up, you are just getting started.” Yeah, thanks for the reminded, I still have 7 more miles to go…this is going to be a barrel of FUN (sarcastic undertones so strong they shouldn’t be undertones)!!! The route we were running was 4 miles out and back, so Kyle also tells me, “The great thing about this run: once you go 4 miles out you have no choice but to go 4 miles back.” Yeah, thanks again, you are just encouraging me all over the place this morning!

So, I made it – I walked for a total of about 0.40 of a mile. I turned around at about 2.5 or 3 miles and said, “Screw it, I am going home, I will finish the 8 miles later.” Then I turned around again and went all the way to 4 knowing good and well I would not be running any more miles later J Kyle of course was nowhere in sight when I turned around to head back to my truck JThe run was brutal to say the least. The hike yesterday may have been the main cause although I wasn’t sore before I started running. I am glad I ran it, I am not glad Kyle kicked my butt at the end (maybe secretly I am J). No matter what Kyle says, I REFUSED to make Heath proud by throwing up (although Kyle was pushing for it – he made me sprint at the end AGAIN!!) Keeping the goal in mind (13.1) definitely helps to put the bad runs in perspective. I knew it was coming and now that I have experienced it, I can move forward and pray that it doesn’t come again any time soon!!!