10 miles

I ran 10 miles today after we went to church. I ran 8 miles on a treadmill a few weeks ago, but I haven't had a long run in quite some time.

I ended up leaving the house shortly after 2pm and returned shortly before 4 pm. The sun was out and it was hot. Well, hot for someone wussified by Oregon weather. Growing up in inland Southern California we had similar weather around Christmas time some years. Weird how one acclimates...

Anyway...

The first part of the run was pretty easy and I was running around 10 minute miles. But the way back involved climbing about 400 feet in the last 1.5 miles and that tanked me. I even ran on the wrong side of the road (with traffic) when there were no sidewalks so that I could stay in the shade a bit more. I didn't have much left when I got back home that's for sure. By the way, the stopping and restarting caused by having to wait for a signal, sucks. It just seems to take way too much energy to get back running again. I would much rather get the green than get to sit around a wait on the red, despite the rest I get waiting. Plus, I could feel the sun baking me.

Nevertheless, I wound up finishing in about 1hr and 48 minutes which includes all of the signals I had to wait for (at least a dozen) and stopping to refill my bottles in my fuel belt at the halfway point. I don't think that is too shabby considering. The heat was the worst though.

Oh yeah...I had eaten waaay too much immediately before the run. I had a small cheese and turkey quesadilla, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and two pieces of toast. Kind of a weird combo. And at times I would taste a bit of the cheese and turkey and other times some peanut butter and jelly. Definitely not a good thing to taste while running--especially when this stuff made me feel nauseated. Yuck. I don't know what I was thinking eating all of that. I had a hard time keeping it down at a couple of points. But, I am not like Dave (formerly known as DTP) and I can't puke it out and move on. The guy has a gift.

While running I also had a flashback to my first experience running a half marathon. It was the Vernonia Half and it was a rainy day. The course, much to my surprise, was mostly uphill and it is a one way course. Thus, once at the top of the elevation gain, we didn't get to run back down, we just hopped on a bus which took us back to the start. That race sucked. I went out way to fast. I ended up with a blister on my foot and my shirt, which was heavy with the rain rubbed my nipple raw. Raw as in bleeding. As in my shirt had bloods stains that were noticable in the area on the left side of my chest. It wasn't pouring out blood. Just a slight drip. That was worse than the blister on my foot, my friends. My right nipple was not bleeding but it was painful. I tried to run hunched over or with my hands on my chest for a bit, but it was too awkward. I just dealt with the pain until my legs became so cramped that I had to walk--well I sort of walked the way Frankenstein walked, stiff legged. Once the cramps went away I would run a bit more until they came back again. I finished it, but hurt. And my time was way slow.

Since then I have had no bleeding nipples thankfully. Lesson learned, I use one of several anti chaffing products. Experience can be a cruel teacher, but it is often the best one.

I have made jokes to friends that if my time is below 6 hours for this Boise 70.3 Triathlon I would do the full monty--a real Ironman. But after just a 10 mile run today I just don't have a desire to do it. Running and swimming just suck too much.