Suck-Fest: 21 miles

Mitchell Farms.

Sunday is Long RUN day.
21 miles on the books.

My son had a basketball tournament all weekend in Dearborn. My bad attitude may have begun last night. After getting scolded at work for not charging someone properly for their color, I headed to his tournament, trying to stay positive. Unfortunately, my GPS kept taking me to a Veterinary Clinic in a rough area giving room for my positive behavior to be sabotaged.

It all worked out, but we had to be back this morning. After a ugly loss I headed back home to run with Lacey.

My legs have been hurting this week. I brought my miles down as well as my pace this week to accommodate and "Listen to my body".

I had a lot of reservations about running today. I was praying my legs would miraculously be strong, pain free and I would rock out 21 miles.

Heading to Laceys at 12:10, I knew I was overdressed. This was the beginning of my whine-fest which lead to my Suck Fest.
At mile 2.3, with Lacey I dropped my jacket off on her porch.

Heading back towards our house I had to stop again.
At mile 5, I ran in to change my short sleeve shirt  for a tank top because I was overheating so fast.

One of the barns on the farm. This is off N. Holly rd.

At mile 10, we were running out of water. I didn't want to stop because it was getting harder to start back up again. We turned down Mitchell road. We asked a farmer watering his plants if he had a spicket we could refill out bottles.

We filled up and tried to calculate our miles we had to run and needed to run. Math is NOT my strong suit. Running and adding is a sure FAIL.  Lacey and I struggle calculating our runs and often need to add miles.

We headed up N.Holly road towards Belford RD. The WHINING was starting with the 1/2 mile incline.

My knee was hurting, the hill sucked and I was only half way there.

My mind started getting the best of me. As my body began to disperse aches and pains my confidence began to dwindle.

I wasn't much for conversation. My Garmin announced it was low on Battery and I felt the same.

The cars were really ticking me off as they flew by us engulfing us in a dust bomb.
Just another thing to whine about.

We had to add 3 different side streets for mileage because we kept miscalculating. We were a mile from my house but only at 19.5 miles.
I was DONE.
I was SORE.
My Garmin DIED.
I had a random SIDE STITCH
My legs HATED me.
I hated ME.
And I had to add distance PAST my street home. I had to buck up.
I pretended it was Mile 23 of my Marathon and I HAD to get through. "HEY! 8:25 min/mi, Slow down..." Lacey shared. Lacey has learned how I get on these long runs. I just wanted to be DONE.
I felt strong until that hill a half a mile from home. "I'M WALKING IT!"
Lacey was very encouraging but way stronger than I feeling. She so kindly let me walk it.
We ran that last mile in maintaining a 9min//mi.

Today was one of those runs you just struggle. Our average pace was 9:25, this was great. But it felt terrible most of the time.

Last week, I babied my body to allow me to be able to run this run. I think I need to baby my body some more!

Honey Stingers. LONG RUN Necessity!

Anita