The best porta potty ever!

Hey guys! I can't believe it's already Sunday night, AGAIN, and tomorrow it's back to work. Ugh! At least it's a short week (I'm taking Friday off.)

So, yesterday I ran 23 miles. Yeah, you read that right, little ol' me ran 23 miles, in a row, in less than 23 hours. It's a bit shocking, I know. I really, really, really had no desire to run yesterday. No, I take that back. I had a desire to run something like 10 miles. 10 is a great number for a weekend long run. A good hour and a half, just something to get you a little nasty and then start your day knowing you've burned some good cals and can have a few treats. 23 miles is a half day adventure that requires carbs the night before and a cooler of running essentials. I can't wait until my carbs can be nice creamy alfredo covered carbs, and not healthy, run enhancing tomato based carbs. So, Sat morning the alarm went off at 7:30 and I was instantly angry. It seemed Angry runner Rachel would be coming out MUCH earlier than the normal last 10% of a race. On Saturday I wanted to a)sleep in b) shop!! c)bake lots of yummy holiday goodies d)curl up on the couch with my boys (Brent and Pips) and watch some tv/read a book. Things I did NOT want to do on Sat: a)run 23 miles. OK, so you get the picture - I did not want to run and I had PMS. Enough said.

So, we got up, ate some oatmeal and a banana and I did my traditional pre-long run dance to Pretty Vegas. It just so happens we're always watching the top video countdown on VH1 before we head out, and I LOVE this song. It's really the only one on the INXS album I like. I dare any of you NOT to dance to it! Ok, so Brent and Pippin don't dance to it and both seem a little frightened of MY dancing, but that's OK. It pumps me up! And off we headed. We ran at our local Smyrna Greenway. It's just a couple of miles from our house, and even though most of the paths are out and back you can still add up to some decent mileage. Several miles of it are near some main roads, so you have traffic to watch and that helps some of the boredom.

From the beginning I could tell Brent didn't really want to run, either. I knew this one would be a BIG struggle. The temps were OK - upper 30's to start low 40's by the end. It was much nicer than last weekend!! I still was angry at Mother Nature for having to wear gloves, the ear thing, my light jacket, and so on. Off we headed, one main loop around the main park for one mile, and then we did a second lap. From there we headed down to the path over towards the soccer park. We've gone that way before but never made it to the soccer park, and last time we ran through there it was in the middle of the summer and the water treatment plant smelled like poop and nearly made me sick. Not so today, which is a good thing considering the trouble our area has had lately with its water (ugh!! I drank AT LEAST 5 glasses of this water at work that day last week - we work in LaVergne). The path ends up on a sidewalk next to a busy street and we were having to cross some roads and it was becoming a pain so we headed back. From there we headed out to the loop towards the Sharp Springs Park. As we passed our local Army Reserve post we noticed quite a few runners. It seems they were having some sort of run, and some of those guys were booking it!! I really would have enjoyed racing them to their finish area just for fun, but I had to stay focused on my pace. We did our loop around the park (4 miles RT) and it was such a bore. Sharp Springs is pretty, but this time of year it is deserted and I need activity to stay focused. We were scared by two huge birds in the woods near the lake. They were enormous!! Other than that, we were the only people passing through. On our way back at around mile 11 Brent asked me how far we had gone. This is usually one of my first signals he's about to drop back. He has a distance/pace watch, so when he asks he's trying to see if his has somehow gone crazy and missed a bunch of mileage or something. Then, at mile 12.5 he told me to go on without him. This was pretty crushing to me, because I already just did not want to run. I thought a LOT about quitting, but I knew I'd end up being embarrassed of myself and angry for bailing, so I just kept going. At that point at least I could tell myself I was over halfway and headed on the downward slope.

Around mile 15 I made it back to the car and traded out my empty bottles for full ones. I also took off my gloves and headwrap. At some points I had been burning up, so I thought I'd throw them in the car. I caught sight of myself in the mirror and MAN, did I look rough! I headed back out the way I had come and in short order a van of guys honked at me. I was NOT in the mood. I KNEW how rough I looked and I was not a happy runner. I gave them the 'die pigs' look and kept on trucking. About a mile later I passed Brent who gave me a big wave on his way back to the car. I said some very unfriendly things about him after we passed...I was slightly amused at the guy running with his German shepherd who was coming up behind him. No, I didn't want a repeat of his run last weekend but I was pretty bummed at being out there by myself in such a foul mood. I had planned to turn around by the Rehab Center but I had sort of gotten into a groove and knew I would have to do less of the 1 mile repeats around the main park if I kept going. I ran past the guard again and up Weakly Lane where ANOTHER car of guys honked at me. I was SO not in the mood. I gave them another string of unfriendly comments and just kept going. Who in their right mind would honk at me in the condition I was in?? UGH! I kept going to the point where I would have had to cross the road to go over to Sharp Springs, instead I turned around and headed back towards the main park. Get this - ANOTHER car honked at me. I didn't even look up at them. So I apologize if it was someone I actually know, but I just wasn't interested in looking at any additional redneck teenagers. I ran back past the Rehab Center and then I really realized how badly I had to pee. I was at 19.50 miles now, and I was actually starting to feel like I was going to finish this thing, and I was starting to feel proud of myself. I had my pepper spray with me, and it was bouncing just a little and banging my bladder with each step. It was starting to be more than I could take so I turned back around and braved the porta potti outside the Rehab Center. Compared to the other ones I've been forced to use this one was golden. Seriously, it was probably cleaner than our bathrooms here!! I felt SO much better but it was REALLY hard to get back in the groove. I knew I was getting close though, and I really wanted to be done. At this point I was starting to watch my Garmin quite a bit. I KNEW I would cross over 4 hours, and I wanted to see the change! I ran back past the new Canoe launch sign, up the painfully steep hill and did a repeat of the flat section across from the airport. Then I headed towards the most god awful hill there could be. It sucks going up AND coming down. It's SUPER steep, and on a slant so it's painful from any angle. I really hate that hill, on ANY run and especially at mile 22! But I imagine it's good training. I was right at 22 miles and I knew all I had left was one lap around the park. I was REALLY hoping Brent would see me coming, leap out of the car, and run that last mile with me. Instead, I saw our car but really couldn't tell if he was in it. I did a 1 with my hands to signal that's all I had left AND TO SIGNAL THAT HEY, IT'S JUST ONE MILE, HOW ABOUT YOU RUN IT WITH ME!! But I never could tell if he was even in the car. So that sent me into a string of very unfriendly thoughts as I did that last loop. At each curve I was telling myself I just had to pass the ballparks, pass the houses with the yappy dogs, pass the water plant and then it's OVER! Right around the water plant there was a woman walking her German Shephard. The dog tried to pull over towards me and I swear I was about to break out the pepper spray and spray them both and TELL THEM how far I had just run and exactly how postal I was. But, she kept him under control so it wasn't necessary. And finally - there it was - like a mirage in the desert - our car. Brent saw me coming and jumped out to greet me! I melted against the car and started doing some stretching. An older guy that I had lapped at the end was walking up the path and stopped to talk to us. He told us he could tell we were runners by our shoes. I love older running guys, so I wasn't thinking mean thoughts but I DID think "yeah - and by our tech clothes, fuel belts, I-pods, massive watches and enormous cooler!!" He asked us about our running and plugged our local state park races (which are a LOT of fun - next year I plan to do a lot more of them). He was really cool - he's 70 and has done 4 marathons and he's still out there trucking 14 minute miles. It was nice to meet him. From there we headed home and Brent told me how proud he was of me for finishing. That made me forget how mad I was at him because I could tell he meant it, so I didn't yell about not finishing the last mile with me. I think I was a little incoherent, so I don't remember a lot after that but we had some lunch, kicked it on the couch and watched the Incredible Dog Challenge on Bravo. Pips was asleep in my lap making some CRAZY snoring/barking sounds in his sleep and we were laughing about how he would walk up to the weave poles and pee on them before he's ever complete one of these challenges!

Anyway, it wasn't a fun run, or a pretty run, but I DID it! I'm actually less sore today than last week, but I think a lot of that had to do with my cold. Here are the splits:

Overall: 23.03 miles, 3hrs 59 mins 22 sec
10.24 avg pace (this is faster than last week which was 10.29 avg pace)
Mile 1: 11.01
2: 10.41
3: 10.10
4: 10.47
5: 10.08
6: 10.04
7: 10.14
8: 10.21
9: 10.19
10: 9.55
11: 10.19
12: 10.33 (this includes some extra time required crossing the road - it was a PAIN)
13: 10.08
14: 10.11
15: 10.54 (this includes some time stopping at the car)
16: 9.24
17: 10.37
18: 10.46
19: 10.22
19.5: 10.35 pace for half mile (then I stopped my watch for the bathroom break)
20.5: 10.53 (it was SO hard to start running again.....)
21.5: 10.09
22.5: 10.50 (this one includes the really sucky final hill)
23: 9:50 pace for the last .5 mile

I'm very happy with my splits, for the most part they are fairly consistent so that's reassuring. My overall average is exactly where I wanted it to be, too!

That's it for tonight, have a great Monday!

Rachel

Exercise:
Sat - 23 mile run
Sun - 2 mile walk with Brent and Pips