14.something....

so I didn't do the full 15. But I did get close. And I'm OK with it. Here's the rundown:

got up at 4:50. Dressed, found all the accessories needed (I'd laid out most of it last night, but Hub had borrowed my headphones, and I didn't have any gatorade, so I needed to grab my debit card so I could buy some while I was out) and headed out the door. I decided to Gallowalk it, since the concept of 15 straight through was daunting -- i figured if I knew I was going to be taking walk breaks I'd at least plan it and be consistent. So I set the Garmin for 1 mile run/1 minute walk intervals.

I ran in a different direction than I've been going lately, to give myself a change of scenery. It was hot, but not unbearably so yet. There was a bit of a breeze, but I was still freakin' hot. I made it out about 3 miles to the Walgreen's where I'd planned to duck in for Gatorade, but they're apparently not 24 hours anymore. Crap. So I kept going, praying that I'd find something open soon so I could replenish my water bottle and give me some electrolytes. I was pretty drippy by this point, so I was starting to get worried. I knew worst-case scenario that I'd hit a Neighborhood Wal-Mart at about mile 7, but I was also worried I'd be in trouble if I waited that long. Luckily, I found a Shell station at about mile 4.5. They were doing shift change, so I had to wait to pay while they got the registers ready, but I was able to duck into the restroom at the time, so it was OK. I splashed the salt off my face and cooled down a bit, so it was a very welcome break.

Then I kept going, and the sun started to peek out. And I started to think that I wasn't going to make the full distance outside. It was humid and I was sweating to beat the band. My pace was a bit faster than last week, and the breeze actually picked up some, but I was still hurting, despite my HR staying in the 140-145 range (last week, I had a hard time keeping it under 150). Worse than that, I was feeling another need to go to the bathroom, so a pit stop at home was necessary. I was able to put it off as much as possible, so that I stretched the outdoor portion into 9.5 miles (including walk breaks), before I headed home.

I expected that all the boys would still be snoozing, but it was nearly 7:15 by that time, so DinoBoy was up, and Hub was in the tub (I made a rhyme), gettting ready for church. If I'd not made it home for him to make the 7:30 service, he'd have gone to 9:00, but since I was back, he took off. I knew at that time that I had to do another 5 to feel good about this morning's run, so I decided I'd watch Schoolhouse Rock while I was on the treadmill to help the time pass more quickly. I also decided to change shoes, since I was feeling all the toes of my right foot bumping up against the toe box and I thought I might pay for that later. I'm afraid my shoes aren't quite big enough for that foot -- the problem is the other foot is a full half-inch shorter and if I get the larger size, I am just throwing a blister party on the left foot. grr. So, anyway, I know the shoe change is not something I can count on race day (my luck, I'd forget to transfer my timing chip, even if could arrange for it), but it helped me get through today.

I hopped on and cranked it all the way up to 4.8 mph. Wheee, watch me burn rubber -- NOT. Hell, at that point, I was just trying to not quit. And I didn't. There were a few points in there where I brought the speed down even lower and just walked, but I figured as long as I kept in motion for the full 70 minutes I'd be OK. And that's what I did. I ran/walked a total of 4.98 miles on the treadmill in 70 minutes. Slow, slow, slow. But I finished as much as I could before the timer on the TM beeped at me.

I finished up the run and hopped into a cold ice bath. This week I really did dump all the ice from the freezer into the tub before I jumped in. Elder Child saw me walking to the bathroom with the ice container and thought I was nuts. Hub walked into the bedroom right when I was immersing myself, and he thought I was in pain (I kinda was!) with the squealing and squalling I made while doing it! But it really does help, and it's worth the initial shock.

So I didn't do the full 15, but I feel OK about it. After all, my longest run this year has been only 12, and that was many moons ago. Last week's run was 10 miles and I thought I was going to die. So I'll take the 14 and change and take the 96% of scheduled miles completed and be mostly satisfied. BTW, this is also my first 30-mile week since, well, I can't remember how long it's been since I had a 30-mile week. So I'll take it.