Alex, my cat, woke me up 16 minutes before my alarm went off. I was tired and really wanted to turn my alarm off and go back to sleep. Then my sparkle sole sister, Shelby, sent me this text.
After I got done laughing, I thought get your ass up and go run. I'm told that if I get used to running in the Florida humidity it makes for fall PR's. I'm really starting to think that's true. Yesterday I was going to run 2 easy miles on the treadmill. Ended up running 3 miles at a 9:05 pace. My goal for November is to run a sub 2 hour half and that's my goal pace. Ok back today....
High tide was at 5:09am and I was on the beach at 6:04am. Not enough room to run on hard sand for 8 miles. I figured I wouldn't be running on the beach today. The plan was to run the street that is one block off the beach. Once I got far enough north I figured I could run at least a mile or so on the beach, since up north it's flatter and has more hard sand.
Just started running and my legs were feeling kinda stiff and heavy. I thought I'll take it easy the first mile then pick up the pace. About a half mile in I lost the end cap off my Camelbak. Felt water running down the front of me. Crap! I kept running until I had to turn around, due to the dead end street. While I was running back I was on the lookout for my end cap. FOUND IT!!! But there was no way I was about to keep using it. I had to loop the tube around so that all the water didn't come out.
I have no idea how far into the run but around mile 2 ish, my new bluetooth headset started losing it's signal. I'm not a runner who can't run without music, I just prefer to. Having it cut in and out was annoying, so I turned it off and put the headphones in my pocket.
Around mile 2.5, I had the sudden urge to use to the bathroom. I'm too far from home to make it, so I thought there is a park about a mile or mile and a half away. I'll go there. I get there and it was closed. They open the bathrooms at 8:30am. When I got there I meant to pause my watch, nope I shut it off. I was 3.86 miles into an 8 mile run and all I wanted to do was go home. I'm standing outside the locked bathroom and I looked at my arm and I realized that wasn't sweat running down my arm that was bird shit. Oh great, I have nothing to wipe my arm off with. I ended up using my ENERGYbits bag to get it off. YUCK! Note to self: put napkins in the Camelbak.
After I got all washed off as best as I could, I walked out to the beach. I thought just finish the 8 miles. Who cares how slow it is, just get it done. By now my legs are like lead and they just didn't want to move. I was far enough north that I could run on the beach. I ran all the way up to Jetty Park, which is where the ships come into Port Canaveral. Turned around and just kept running and walking. Finally I got to a point where the hard sand was getting smaller, so I headed back to the street.
The entire time I kept thinking just keep smiling. This isn't the end of the world. It's just a bad run, BUT you are out there running so it's not that bad. Your legs hurt and you're tired, but just put one foot in front of the other.
Ended up running 10 miles. At one point I thought about stopping at 9 then I thought just make it an even 10. My first 3.86 miles was a 10:33 pace. My last 6.14 miles was an 11:28 pace. Just slightly slower than that 9:05 pace I wanted.
I took this picture shortly after I stopped my watch. See I just kept smiling!
It's tough days that make the easy days so worth it!
Oh well there's always tomorrow.......
