Days of Whine and Running

The best thing I can say about today's 17 miles is that I finished.

I just couldn't warm up to the distance. I've been sort of dreading it all week. Despite the fact that, overall, this has been an excellent week of running. My two 4 milers were great. Perfect 10 minute miles for each. I almost nailed Wednesday's 800s. Yesterday's 8 miles were exhilartaing. Today -- I just wanted it to be over.

It's possible that I was a little dehydrated to start. I ran my 8 at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. After that, we went shopping and out to dinner. I had one glass of wine which almost knocked me out. A friend called and wanted us to meet them at an Irish pub down the street (literally 5 minutes from my house), but I was a zombie by 9:30.

I slept in this morning and took a long time getting ready for my run. I ate breakfast at 9:30 AM (oatmeal prepared with 1% milk, chopped walnuts, blueberries, and brown sugar) but by 11:30 I still hadn't started. I grabbed a 1/2 a pack of Sport Beans and ran out the door. Before I finished even one mile, I already knew this run was going to be a challange. First, I had to stop when my husband drove down the street to discuss the logistics of getting our daughter from Sunday School, feeding the kids, and taking someone to the airport. Then, a couple of dogs decided to go for a run with me. One didn't have a collar but the other one did. He very sweetly rolled over and let me check his stats: "Ziggy Sullivan, Orchard St. 821-2242." Where the hell is Orchard Street??? I wasn't carrying my cell phone, so I rang doorbells until I found someone home. Third time's the charm and I was able to call and see if I could return some lost dogs. No such luck. The number was disconnected. Now, I could have turned around and taken the dogs to a safe place, i.e. my house. But I've already done that twice before which is how we now have two dogs and I wasn't ready for four. Anyway, I had to run 17 miles. I was already running behind. I can only hope someone else had the common sense to locate the dogs' owner.

The rest of the run was uneventful. I slogged through it. At one point, I was distracted and ran right past the bush where I had stashed a water bottle so I had to turn around and get it. Hey! I'm not a litterbug!

I am just so, so, tired of being cold while I'm running. Could the weather just warm up a little? I'll take 10 degrees. Gloves on, gloves off, sweat freezing on my body, cold wind in my face. Now that makes me think of the Eagles -- can you guess which song?

Miles 15 and 16 were literally done at a shuffle. When my Garmin beeped 17 miles I turned it off and walked to my driveway which couldn't have been more than 1/10 of a mile away.
I just didn't have it in me to run another step.

17 Miles. 3:16:46. Avg. Pace: 11:34/mile
WTD: 41.31 (I believe that's a weekly high for me)
YTD: 282.86