18 Miles.... You Win Again.

For both rounds of marathon training I have struggled with my 18 milers.  20 miles?  Great.  22 miles?  Awesome.  18 miles?  100% shit show.  When I woke up Saturday morning, I had wanted to wait until the wind chill was in the double digits.  Finally at 2pm, I said screw it and headed out in the balmy 9 degree temps.  Luckily for me, there was a sheet of ice covering my entire running path.  Yay!

After mile 1, I resigned to the fact that this would be a slow run, and opted to not pay attention to my garmin for much of the run.  I was wearing my yaktrax, which helped with my footing, but still gave the impression of two steps forward, and one step back while running.  Gah.  Through the first GU break (4.5 miles) I was having a jolly good time.  I had planned to run a nine mile out and back to get my mileage for the day.  Unfortunately at 7.5 miles I realized that the rest of the trail was under construction, so I'd have to tack miles on to the end of the run.

Since I'm 100% loco runner, this messed with my brain big time.  When you run the same trail over and over and over and over again, you get used to knowing exactly how far you are from being done.  Having to add 3 miles to this automatic total suckkkkkked.  At mile 9 I went to take GU #2 only to realize that some dumb dumb hadn't zipper her coat pocket and had lost her favorite blueberry pomegranite roctane.  I continued to pout and scour the trail for it's shiny blue wrapper.

I was approximately 100 yards from my initial GU point when I saw something shiny out of the corner of my eye.  Praise Jesus alleluiah!  I am saved!!  Seriously... I don't know if I've ever been this happy on a run.  I kept on with my run going an alternate route to tack on the remaining 3 miles, only to realize the trail was closed THAT WAY TOO.  alskfjalsjdflajslkfjlkajsdlfkjlkasdjflasdflakjdsflkajsdf

Fine.  I'll do a mile lap around my apartment.  Whatever.  Just get this run d-o-n-e!  I ditched my yaktrax on the apartment lawn (ie:  snow mountain) and continued around the block.  Foreshadowing:  big mistake.  At approximately 17.3 miles, I ran by a pet shop with some huge dog bellowing out a barking rant.  When I moved to get off of the sheet of ice that sprung up on me and on to a mound of snow, I completely lost my footing and flew through the air landing really hard on my elbow and right hip.  Immediately upon hitting the ground I stopped my garmin (tell me that isn't a reflexive action....) and cursed at the dog to shut the eff up.  Oops.

I hobbled the remaining .7 miles home, pouting.  When I got home I felt sicky sick.  Oftentimes after a long run I feel really pukey and this time was bad.  I curled up in the fetal position on the couch in my still sweaty and stinky clothes and called KK.  And of course he didn't answer so I pouted 100x harder.  Moments away from crying he called me back and said he had a gift for me.   Well technically 2 gifts.  Well actually thousands of gifts...... and I perked right up.  Someone had replenished my starburst jelly bean stash!!!!!!!!!!  :) :) :)  Eventually the promise of candy was enough for me to pry myself off the couch and in to the shower.

Oh and for the record, I can run at least 21 miles in the time it took me to run 18.  If it's not spring by the time my 20 miler rolls around, I'm going to kill winter.  Seriously.  I hope they let me blog from prison.

And in lighter news, check out my haul from the library this weekend.  Yes I am a homebody, why do you ask?  ;)  Quick poll:  How many of these will get read/watched before their impending deadline?  Answer to come.