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First 17 Miler

Wow, what a difficult ugly run.

It seems like this entire day just started off rough. Lil Man woke us up at 3:10. I was just falling back to sleep when the dog started puking at 3:45. My alarm was set for 4:00am.

I drove to where we were supposed to meet, and the parking lot was gated off.  WHAT?!?  I had planned our route from this parking lot and now basically my entire 'plan' for the run was trashed. On top of that, I had to pee. I mean I really had to pee, and they had locked the bathrooms also. DOUBLE WHAT?!?.

I called my running buddy to have her meet me at an alternate spot. I drove to the spot, took care of my issue of needing to pee, and started getting my gear ready. The moment I put my running belt on, it started to rain. I will pause a moment for you to snicker.  It was one of those moments that just for a second I paused and said, "should I really do this today?"

But my running buddy was there; we got up super early so we might as well get our run in.

I started this run with very heavy tired legs. During the first mile,  I was struggling already - yikes. I hadn't planned on running Italian Lake, but since we had to add more to our route because we lost mileage by moving our starting point, Italian Lake it was.  It was just a normal run around the lake UNTIL I saw these bubbles. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the back of an alligator. A few seconds later, all doubt was removed as the alligator JUMPED up out of the water and snapped at me. Talk about getting the blood pumping!!! On the other side of the lake, he jumped up in the lily pads. This time, I sort of slammed into my running buddy and pushed her in a defensive, move, that thing is coming to get us kind of way. We left Italian Lake quickly with quivering legs.

We reached the hospital (water stop/pee break)  at around 6.5 miles. The problem with this was that I had planned on us getting to the hospital at 10 miles. By the time we reached the hospital we weren't even half way yet. I gave my running buddy the option of turning back and getting 13 miles today or pushing forward. Between my sore legs/tender foot and her aching knee, I felt the need to throw the option out there. She said let's run a little farther and then decide.

We ran across the bridge (for the first time ever) and ran on the West Shore for a mile or two. It was nice to see the river from the other side.

By this time into the run, I'm almost out of water. I've already had 20 oz, refilled my bottle and it was almost empty again. We still had about 7 more miles to go. As far as fuel goes, I think I may like the Shot Bloks. Today was my first time to try them. I had stomach issues, but I'm not going to contribute that to the Shot Bloks. I think it was just other things, but a few more runs and I should be able to hopefully decide which fuel is the lesser of the evils.

Back across the bridge, down by the river, the pain was pretty intense for both of us and the run/walk began. By mile 15 it was more of a run/walk/shuffle/just keep moving forward. My foot had been bothering me for most of the run - just tender. But around mile 15ish the tenderness turned more into pain. But I was able to finish the run.

Today was rough. At mile 10 or so, I felt as sore/tired/worn out as I did my last 16 miler. So this run was in no way pretty. In fact, at one point I was near hysterical laughing as I saw us 'running'. We were doing the motions, but I'm not so sure that we were actually moving. My running buddy asked me if I had my 'runner's high'. I was like no, I think I'm  just delirious.

Determined, we pushed through the pain and discomfort and finished out our 17 miles.

Wow, I just ran/walked/thought at one point about crawling 17 miles today. That is pretty awesome.

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