18 Miles of Hills, Wind, and Cold

Wow, really, all I can say is wow. That was one of the hardest runs I've ever done. First it was cold. When we first started the pain in my fingers (from the cold) was so bad. It was beyond painful. But FINALLY with hand warmers and 2 pairs of gloves they warmed up.

It was windy and as the run continued it got windier.

And it was hilly. When my running partner mentioned hills, I didn't have any idea what kinds of hills he was talking about. Um,  yeah, when he said hills, he meant hills.



We had to stop several times for me to try to stretch my right leg/knee. I'm so glad I didn't do this run alone. First of all, with the cold and the wind, I probably would have cut it short. I know I wouldn't have pushed through like I did. So I'm so pleased with myself that I was able to do this.

I'm feeling the pain from it now. I'm thinking it might be an ITband issue. After the run, walking was painful.I iced immediately ,but every time I stood to walk it hurt to straighten the leg and then lift it to walk. So, I foam rolled. OUCH that was painful. But after I rolled, I was able to take a few steps without pain. So the plan is to rest, stretch, roll and ice. This is a drop back week this week. So I'm not real concerned. I can move some runs around if I need an extra day of rest. Hoping it's nothing major and that a little rest will take care of it.

I still can't imagine finishing the rest of the mileage for a race. I mean, it would have been very hard to go from 18 to 26.2 yesterday. Actually I'm sure lots of tears would have been involved. But I keep telling myself not to look at it that way. I still have some training runs left before the race. And hopefully during the race I will be able to force myself to keep moving forward and finish.

I so just want to finish!