Sometimes You Just Have To Walk

Anywhere5K's status was "Sometimes you just have to walk", what ever my witty post title WAS going to be it is long gone and this is now the title for today.  I think it is rather appropriate considering my 13 mile training run this morning.  I got a bit of a late start, seems both Gus and I were having tummy troubles so once mine got sorted, and Gus finally took a Tums.  It is really hard to explain to a dog that this will make you feel better.  I had to crush it up and put it in peanut butter and I put it in too much peanut butter with probably exacerbated the tummy issues.  Poor guy something is just not sitting right with him.  I knew what MY problem was and I required me to get a 30 minute later start than I planned on...

I decided to run the Surftown Half course, starting in Watch Hill and running through Misquamicut and Weekapaug and back to Watch Hill.  I figured parking in Watch Hill would be easier.  They have spaces with a 2 hour limit and I'd be back in 2:30 or less and I was starting around 7:30 (which turned into 8:15). Never the less I'd be gone, hopefully, before prime beach time.

Route

Normally my long run is on Sunday, and since I have a three day weekend I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to run long twice, meaning a Saturday and a Monday run.  Running is a mental sport and a physical sport.  I need to get used to running on Saturdays.  Mostly I need to get out of my own mind.

Got my self all parked and situated and basically knew where I was going to be going.  I lost the little street listing I had jotted down last night but basically remembered where I needed to go.

As I approached Misquamicut I saw this interesting tree, for all of you who have lost or left beach toys or other things at the beach, this seems to be where they end up.  Well those that don't end up as general trash on the 'trash islands' forming in our oceans.

Debris Tree?

About this time I noticed I was not on my route alone another woman runner, just a bit faster than me.  Not much mind you, so I had someone to pace with (read: try and keep up with) for several miles  This was nice because I was getting into the boring part of the run along the beach.  Wait, that sounds wrong.  This was along the straightaway that I would see twice, so boring in that aspect.  Exciting in that all the beach goers were walking to the beach and driving to the beach, so it was fairly busy.  Quite a few runners and bikers out  and I was running in to the wind, which is nice and cooling.

I got a little turned around in Weekapaug and should have went right when I went left then I would not have gotten turned around.  Alas, these things happen. Interestingly it did not skew my mileage.  I had lost sight of  woman runner and didn't know if we were on the same course or not and thought well I'll go left and up and around this loop and then back on to the boring beach road.  I also figured there would be some shade in the neighborhood (there was) and then it would be nice to be along the ocean before going back on boring beach road.   I didn't go far enough down, I recognized a street name and thought, oh that is where I need to turn. I should have went 1/2 block further and I'd of been where I needed to be.  In any event, back over the Weekapaug breachway and stopped to get a bottle of water, to replenish, I was at the half way point and thirsty.

All of a sudden I hear voices behind me, eventually they catch up.  Woman runner and another woman runner.  They say HI and woman runner says I saw you in Watch Hill.  I said that was where I was heading back to.  We were all on our weekly long runs.  The two woman went ahead for a while then the other woman decided my pace was better so we ran together and walked together.  At one point I just said, I am not feeling this, go on ahead.  She was happy to walk and talk with me for a few minutes and we  picked up the pace again.  Her name is Deb.  She hails from Baltimore and is training for the Baltimore Half.  She will also be running Surftown in two weeks, hopefully I will see her again.  I asked how long she has been running and why she got into running.

Deb is a breast cancer survivor, double mastectomy, after three tries they could not get clean margins.  She said she had never had much of a chest and that was just heart breaking to loose what little she had.  Cancer just wasn't going to win.  One of the medications she is on to keep the cancer at bay is known to cause a 10 pound weight gain.  She was adamant she was NOT going to gain that 10 pounds and she was going to run again.  Well she did NOT gain that 10 lbs, in fact she lost 20.   She is mid 50's, you'd NEVER know it by looking at her.  I'd peg her at mid 40's like me.  She said she got into running halfs as the training wasn't as demanding as it was for the 100 mile bike rides she used to do pre-cancer.  As she talked, and we ran, it was nice.  She said she ran a Disney Princess Half and loved it.  They run it before the park opens and were able to run through the castle to places no one is allowed to go.

The whole conversation gave me chills.  How wonderful.  She was NOT going to let cancer beat her and she was NOT going to let the 'cure' cause her to get fat.

I spied a C-Store and really needed some Gatorade and bid her a fond farewell, congratulations on her victory over cancer, and hoped to see her again in a couple weeks.    That Gatorade never tasted better.  I walked a bit got my gumption together and ran more.

This was NOT my best training run ever. Instead of chalking them up to junk miles I worked on form and landing more mid foot and keeping my posture straight and leaning at the ankles a bit.  I will not kick myself for my lousy pace or for walking.  It was what it was and I did it, end of story.

After I got to my destination I saw Woman Runner and said "You are a beast!  Go Girl!"  She said "4 more miles".   I said "You can do it, you are awesome!" and swigged my water and hobbled to a shady spot to try and stretch my legs.

Stats:

Splits

So maybe not my fastest run. But not as slow as I expected.  166 minutes = 29 WW points! Did someone call and ask if I wanted to go for pizza tonight?  I do believe Hubb just rang with that question.

Elevation

HR

Pace

 I need to review the "Player" to see what happened where, but you can see there isn't a lot of consistency after mile 7.  Is this a factor of it being Saturday?  Late Start?  Heat? Tummy issues? Mind games?

Sincerely,
Beth who's bad training run, really wasn't bad; when is a run a bad thing?