Chug-along-chica!

I ran a few miles with some of my sweet relatives. Nothing much to speak of. I am...ashamed. I am felling a little bit rebellious about running for some reason. Like running has been some kind of escape, but now it is starting a little tiny bit to be one of the dreaded things I "have" to do. Hmmm. Probably just a little nervous.

Oh yea, and that's the other glorious thing I have going on. I have a Texas-sized cold sore--this is a reliable outward expression of stress for me. I don't mind so much the stinging and swelling--it is the little kids running away screaming at the sight of my monstrous crusty lip that upset me.

Merry Christmas! Here is a picture by AMAZING sidewalk painter Julian Beever expressing my Christmas wish...

Here is the same picture from the side view.  See--I told  you he is  amazing!   He has tons of other cool stuff too!

Ug. What an ugly run! My stomach was fighting with me the whole way. Really painful and nauseated. Several of my family members have kind of a stomach flu. If I continue to feel this yucky I won't be able to run tomorrow. Thanks for the encouragement yesterday though!

Oh my gosh! Have you guys seen the new sleep tracking thing? You just go to "User Options" and check a box. This is going to change my life! :) I know I'll be more responsible with all this accountability going on. Feel free to chastise if you don't see at least 8 in the night-time sleep box from now on!

I felt a lot better today--just a little queasy, but no pain.  2 miles on the treadmill in 19:30.  Felt pretty good.  I would've run longer if the rather menacing front desk guy from the club we were at had not persuaded me to stop and go home so he could clean the gym before it closed.  :)  

I spent all day traveling back from New Mexico where I've been visiting my family.  Unpacked really quickly, jumped on the treadmill and did a quick 3.  I have really not had time to keep up the blogging on vacation, so tomorrow I'm gonna catch up on everything you all have been doing for the past week or so.  More than I have, I'd wager!  

12.62 outside. Ave. pace 9:30. Ouch. And hooray. Details to follow. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go cry. I mean, stretch.

PS take that, Brent.

OK. Here are the grisly details. I headed out the door around 10 am with my Garmin obscured. I planned on only looking at my watch, and run relatively easy until noon. I had music with me, though, which always makes me go faster, especially if I like the song. It was weirder than weird to encourage myself by thinking about how I "only" had one more hour to run. Here are my splits:

9:30, 9:31, 9:37, 9:32, 9:31 (potty break, and stop to drink gatorade--off the clock)

9:16, 9:15 long live gatorade!, 9:36 (stop to drink again), 9:27, 9:39 (quick gulp), 9:30, 9:30, and 9:39 pace for the .62.

Total ascent: 1105 ft. Total descent: 1164 ft.

This run was a real record breaker in a lot of ways. My longest run to date was a 10 miler last week at 11:00 pace on the treadmill. So here are the records broken today:

    1.) Longest continuous run ever by 2.62 miles.

    2.) Longest continuous run outside by 4.62 miles.

    3.) Best time for 10 miles by 19 minutes (I was at 94 min. for 10 miles).

    4.) First time I've run more miles in one day than I have on all the other days of the week combined.

    5.) First time I've ever cried after a run. It wasn't out of sadness, though. I was just so grateful that I was done, and I was so glad that I made the stupid goal of running until noon.

    6.) First time I've ever had white, crusty salt all over my face after a run. Does this happen to everyone? I seriously could've seasoned several pounds of cooked broccoli with all the dried salt on my face. Yuck.

    7.) Slowest triumphant entry. I had no kick at the end--whatever! I just could not move any faster. That was weird. Those last 5 minutes of running were SOOOO hard to me. I thought of nothing but stopping almost the whole time.

I'm not sure that I actually could've done a 2:04 half marathon. I was off the clock every time I had to stop for a red light or to drink and stuff. My real time would've been closer to 2:12 or something with stops. But anyway, I'm glad I got this long run in, despite the weariness I feel now.