Oozing
I debated on the title for this post. It could've been called..HTFU part 2, or Mental Toughness or WTF AM I GETTING MYSELF INTO? but they just don't cut it. This title, I feel is more abstract (although I am definately partial to the last one).
Yesterday we ran the Around the Bay Course. During the run, I was most definately oozing mental toughness. Let me remind you that Around the Bay is in like, 13 days. Yeah. So, I have mentioned before that I am not ready. In any sense of the word. But, still I went. Mind you, formal was on Friday. I drank a lot. (It was open bar you know) I also worked the next day til 12:30am, didn't sleep til like 2:30 and got up at 6:00 to cab it to the Running Room for 7am, so we can leave for Hamilton at 7:15. Carpooling of course.
Now, we didnt do the whole 30k course, I'll have you know. We did the 15k out and 15k back. And we started at the finish line. And the hills, the hills are at the end. So basically we did the hills twice.
The first 20k were fine. I started to fade very quickly after that. I was dehydrated (due to the excessive drinking on Friday night) and very very exhausted. And my IT Band was killing me! The guy who was driving offered to let me wait somewhere and when they were done they would pick me up...But I didn't want to. It was cold and stuff anyways. They said, however, if they got back and I wasnt there, they would hop in the van and come find me! I really appreciated it.
We run through a place called the Valley of Death. The whole scenery is cemetaries. Seriously! Cemetaries and creamatoriums...
Yeah. So, At this point we're about, oh, 8km from the finish line and I was hurting SO BAD! The course was Crazy busy with runners. Seriously. Like you saw tons of runners. We saw our group that had left later as we were entering the Burlington area. It was great. I saw them again on the way back, and that was good, cause I was pretty much by myself. After entering the valley of death, there were many many more runners.
I pretty much walked the whole valley of death...Well...Yeah. I was going to try justifying it but seriously the whole thing sucked.
I had a kind of limp going on cause of my IT Band. Never have I been so close to accepting a ride from a stranger (they were runners). I didn't though, because my mother probably would have murdered me.
Speaking of death, as I passed cemetaries on the way back, I would look at them and say "oh, that's a nice spot. I'll just go and lay there for awhile"..But death is easy. And I don't give up.
Anyways, the big humungous hill that everyone was talking about was just on the way out of the valley of death. Yeah. At 26k. Everyone was talking about this hill, and I swore they were exaggurating. We were coming to the hill. I was going to run up the hill if it was the last thing I did. I started running up it and I thought that it would end. But..it didn't. You go around the bend and under the bridge, and you see the full extent of it. I looked at it in awe, and almost cried. And then I started walking. (listening to my body maybe? Hmm)
So, I get to the top of the hill, and just kept moving. Seriously. All I could think about was not making my lovely friends wait. I put my hair in a ponytail, stretcched out, forgot about what i was doing, put my ipod on, and finished. Some random runner asked me if I was okay and offered me advil. I was almost at the finish and i think my mother would have killed me if I took it so I just pushed through.
I made it to just around the corner, and someone called out the window to me and told me to get in the van (it was my runner carpool friends). I got in and everyone said I did good for finishing. Haha. Then we went to breakfast. I was coughing a little and this guy we were running with was a doctor and he told me that I needed to carry my puffer with me cause he could hear me weezing across the table. Hahaha. So....
I got home and I had to go to work and my boss told me to call when I was in Port Credit. So I called him and he said to not come in cause it was not busy. I was happy, and I went home and slept for 5hrs, got up for food and went back to bed. I was SPENT!
My race plan is now simple. Me and my running buddy (if she still wants to run with me) will simple Oooze positivity. We will talk about all the good things that happened in the year and the neat things that we want to do.
On Friday I was oozing the scent of alchol. I mean, I have been drunker but I was pretty gone. Apparently i thought my friend and her boyfriend were related. And I fell of the chair and spent a little bit of time on the floor. Yeahh...
Here is a picture from formal of me!
Finally, Today in track I was oozing my special magic!
We were running 20 minutes non-stop. Originally I was in my little world with music, super sore just wanting to get it over with. And then I was passing someone and she said "oh is this our marathon runner" and we started talking about running, and she used to run until she had a baby! Then at the end she told me if I hadnt been there she would've stopped running! So I am pretty happy about that. Im bringing her in some Learn to run material and giving her all the tools she needs to start running agian.
One thing I am not oozing is healthy eating. I have not been in my house for like a week. Now we are back in our house and there is no food. AND GUESS WHAT????? I feel like crap! Ill get back into the swing of things. I meet with my nutritionist tomorrow:)
Well this turned out to be pretty long.
I am now swearing off alcohol until May 11th. After the Mississauga Half.
Run Strong:)
Tigrr
posted by AddictedToEndorphins @ 11:14 AM
5 Comments:
Talk about burning the candle at both ends... You are nuts, Tiger :-) Good thing you are young. That kind of stuff would kill me!!
You said it! No alcohol until after May 11th! You promised!!!
Thanks for the comment.
Best of luck with ATB... the course sounds brutal but fun. I am definitely tackling it next year. Dang injuries!
Just think... next time you run it, you will NOT be hungover and running on hardly any sleep... or will you? ;)
thanks for the awesome review of the course! Still wish i could run it, but i'm trying to be a responsible adult... LOL
i'm sure that you'll have less alcohol in your system for ATB :) have a great run, and keep oozing your positivity... and i'll send you my "have the best run of your life" vibes. I will be there next year!!!
thx for the comments, will be looking for your results! Cheers Mel
I just meant whatever bloggers were interested could fill out a bracket for the NCAA basketball tournament and we could have a fun little contest going on
I had a chance to skim back over some of your older entires... took me a while but I found your first half from last year. LOVED reading about it.
I can totally relate to how you were feeling during those last KM's of the race, the rush at the finish, all those big hopes & goals going through your head afterwards, and eventually settling on more reasonable goals... lol
Best of luck with your big ambitions. You have accomplished a lot already.
Scotia was my first race (last year) so I will be there again in September for sure. Half or full, I am not quite sure yet... ;)
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