Traveling messed up my sinuses. I haven’t been able to breathe properly since I got back.
Today’s Exploit:
I signed up for another race. Another half-marathon.
I don’t know what I was thinking, but then, the last one wasn’t so bad...
I should have known better when I signed up for a trail run on a mountain. Even a mountain that I had run on before. A year makes your mind hazy and the hills don’t seem so bad and the elevation is just a whisper. When really the hills were nearly vertical climbs and the elevation means you wheeze while walking that flat spot and suffocate on the hills.
A recount, for future reference:
Mile 1: Ack! it’s all up hill. It never ends. Note to self: find more hills to practice on in the flat desert of South Texas.
Mile 2: I give up, I’ll never be able to keep up with Catherine. I need to catch my breath and PS the hill still never ends.
Mile 3: I hate mountains and trails and hiking and running, Oh, wait! I see a level bit of trail!
Mile 4: Oof. Forgot to eat on that monstrous hill I just climbed. I REALLY hope I don’t get a migraine. I have another 6 miles before I get to another aid station. (Lack of oxygen means it never occurred to me that I had the option of going back to the last aid station that was 1/2 a mile back.)
Mile 5: Well, I’m pretty sure I’ll be climbing for ever and ever and ever, but at least it’s not quite so steep. Shoot, I just got a blister.
Mile 6: I made a FRIEND! Yay! She’s doing better than me and she hasn’t run in a long time. This was her way to “get back out the door”.
Mile 7: The three amigos passed us, and another lady caught us. We are now the three amigas following the three amigos. But we like their pace and we like walking up the hills.
Mile 8: Ooh! Cramp in the calf, I think I’ll walk a minute. Ooh! Cramp in the other calf. Stop to stretch.
Mile 9: We really are going to climb into the clouds. I think this mountain’s magical and our entire race loop will be up hill. PS the cramps are getting worse.
Mile 10: Aid station, woo hoo! And they claim it’s all down hill from here! They gave me a salt tablet and an orange slice maybe the cramps will go away.
Mile 11: They lied. I still have to go up hills. But now walking makes my quads cramp and running makes my thighs cramp. So I have to half shuffle and try really hard not to cramp and make myself fall off the mountain.
Mile 12: I’m pretty sure that the 50 mile group is going to beat me in this race. At least it’s pretty. "Shuffle shuffle grunt (cramp) shuffle"
Mile 13: I see people! And the cow bells! Yay! The kids are there to give me high five, and I’m turning away from the finish, oh no! another cramp. Ok, it’s only 20 more steps, I can do this. CRAMP! ENTIRE LEG! AAAHHHHH!
I hopped across the finish line and had 5 people attack me to make sure I wasn’t hurt. And then I nearly got tackled by a 4 year old, he wanted to give me a hug and didn’t care if I was stinky and sweaty and salty and falling over on my own.
Amazingly enough, the only part that I wasn’t smiling and having a good time was that 4th mile when I had the migraine scare. The rest was torturously fun. And I got 5th place in my age group. Out of 8, but still...
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