RFE TR #12

Total Miles Trained For Elijah: 77

Phew. 12 miles. DONE.

So last night after work I had to go and deliver some goods to a yard sale. Because the sponsor is my women's philanthropy group, I needed to help set up for today's event. It was sweltering hot. Really. I'm OK for sweating due to running. But for merely being outdoors? That is for the birds! After about two hours of that, I threw in the towel. There were plenty more ladies available to lug boxes around and assemble baby toys and stack clothes on tables.

I had every intention of making Maddy's famous spaghetti with sausage as my pre-longrun dinner. However, after sweating to death beforehand, I caved to Chasen's offer of going out to dinner. Maybe I will have the spaghetti tonight!

I also intended to try to have my run finished by dawn. So I immediately went to bed after dinner. When my night owl husband quietly came to bed at 2 AM, I woke up. And I pretty much stayed up until my alarm went off at 3:45 AM. Yes - 3:45 AM. I used my pre-run time to check e-mail, eat, etc. as always. One e-mail of note came from Lesley, my local friend who wants to run the upcoming Race For The Cure. And she asked me how to start! So I quickly directed her to the Phedippidations Worldwide Half Marathon Kick The Couch 5K training program. And I offered lots of other advice and tidbits of motivation. I look forward to hearing her response!

At 4:30 AM I was outdoors. It was about 76 degrees with 88% relative humidity. Temp good, humidity bad. I had 12 miles to run... and that's all there was to it. Sunday's pre-dawn forecast didn't look any better, so there was no sense postponing.

I did a sort of an out-and-back with a loop course. I ran up the service road 4 miles, crossed an overpass, and I followed the opposite side service road all the way back down by my local hospital. I ran up the hill to the hospital. Eek! Then I ran back behind it, through downtown, over another overpass to the west side of my neighborhood, over by the local elementary school, through the surrounding neighborhood, back to the service road, and into the east entrance into my neighborhood. Yeesh! It was hilly. All of it. I hurt everywhere. But it is a good hurt.

Now let me tell you about the humidity. Every square inch of my top was wet. Seriously. (and what was underneath it) My running hat was soaked. At one point I wondered what was hitting me in the back. It was my soaked ponytail! It never gets wet! My running clothes made a loud 'thud' as I dropped them into my laundry basket. Humidity - ick!

It was a fairly slow run, as you could imagine. Lots of walking.

Mile 1: 12:25
Mile 2: 12:30
Mile 3: 12:03 (I thought I saw someone sleeping under an overpass! So I took off!)
Mile 4: 12:31
Mile 5: 12:53
Mile 6: 13:35 (and the walking begins...)
Mile 7: 12:47
Mile 8: 13:24
Mile 9: 13:30 (up "hospital hill")
Mile 10: 12:42 (through flat downtown)
Mile 11: 13:02
Mile 12: 13:01
Total: 2:34:28
Average: 12:53 per mile, 164 beats per minute

As I said, 12 miles DONE.