Sweet Sixteen

So 18 turned into 16. But the 16 was good.

I decided to get to Shelby Farms earlier since it was going to take me awhile to get my miles in and I would also be running by myself anyway. Why wait 'til 7? I got a good parking place on the outside lot so I could use my car as the refreshment stop. Regardless of the trail I would be on, that spot would be a good central place. So I put my water by my tire and some gels on top of my tire so everything would be easy to get to on the go without unlocking my car, etc. There was already some activity at the Visitor Center because it was the March of Dimes March for Babies.

The lake was very quiet that early; I passed only one other person. The temps were pleasant and the sun was coming up so it was very nice. Lots of geese on and around the lake. One goose kind of charged at me at one point. Shoo! I also saw some little baby geese too. They were cute. I headed to Chickasaw Trail and saw Nicole. Quick chat with her about what was going on and off I went.

I quickly found out that my Nike iPod was NOT callibrated. So I was going to have to wing it in terms of mileage. I know what the miles are for the trails, plus, I am pretty consistent with my time. I ended up using Mr. Right Brain during the runs to add and readd my mileage.

My original plan was to run to the Shell station after that, but when I was ready to head that way, Farm Road was bumper to bumper with people coming in for the walk. There is very limited pedestrian space there (and I *hate* getting down that road to Walnut Grove - it is so tight) so I nixed that and stayed within the Farm.

Back around the lake and up the gravel road. I made it about a mile up the gravel road and then remembered it was *very* hilly. Decided the big hills may not be good friends to the IT band, so I turned back. I was already gambling a bit since Chickasaw has some hills too, so I thought that may be enough. Back to the lake.

A bit of inspiration for me then. A younger woman was approaching me and she must have noticed my TNT shirt (or the pure exhaustion on my face - I was probably 9 miles into it at this point) and she said "Good job! You're doing it!! You're doing it!!". Love that. I can't tell you what a difference it makes to have somebody say things like that when you are DYING. Definitely some added encouragement there. So thanks to Miss Purple Shorts. (George says during the big races, there are people all along the road cheering - and that just carries you to the finish. Am hoping this will be the case in San Diego too.)

It was looking like the walk was about to start, so I hit the Chickasaw again to get ahead of them. Toward the end of the trail, a few runners started passing me. This trend continued when I got to the lake. They were probably thinking "Slow poke turtle." I was thinking "I've already run 13 miles mister." Their walk route was apparently one lap of the Chicasaw Trail and one lap around the lake.

My last two laps of the lake were full of the March of Dimes runners/walkers. The March of Dimes walk did have some benefits for me since there were extra porta-potties all around. I also visited their water stations a few times. (I felt a little bad about that at first, but then thought it may be ok since I didn't take any of their food and I had actually made a donation to a family at church who had a team, so maybe that made it better.) During my very last lap around the lake, I was right in the middle of all the walkers and the trail was very crowded. Poor timing there, but no other choice. I did my best to kind of run through them. But by then, I was walking quite a bit more anyway. All that activity and the people gave me some new things to look at and some needed distractions.

There were lots of babies there and teams wearing t-shirts honoring and remembering premie babies who had been lost. More inspiration as I was thinking a lot about my own two healthy kids. Thankful for that.

I finally just called it quits after 16.25 miles. I know I only had 2 more miles to go, but I just ran out of everything. Time, trail, willpower, energy. Yes, Mr. Left Brain won out there. But all in all I felt really, really good yesterday. Mr. Right Brain did a good job for 16 miles. The run felt good. And afterwards, I was not really wiped out, not sore or anything. I stretched and iced and rolled. (I have one spot on the side of my stomach where apparently the gels I put in the inside pocket of my shorts rubbed pretty bad. A major ouchy there. But if that's the worse blister and chafing that I ever get, I'll take it.) I felt very good all afternoon. Even went to Morgan's volleyball tourny. At 7pm, I totally ran out of gas and just got so tired - I was in bed by 8pm. Today, I am just a little bit stiff and tight, but nothing is hurting. YEA!!! I think the key to all that was my water, the gels and my walk breaks (I read some more about walk breaks in the Galloway book. I'll share that later.) All in all, it was a good run - before, during, and after. I feel great!

There are only four more long runs. 14, 20, 12 & 8. One of those is a little intimidating. The other are very doable.