THE run

Okay, so i've been dreading this blog all week. i'm sorry.

As you know, I ran my first 15K on Monday with Sarah and Dad. I would love to take you down memory lane about how this all started and my journey...but i wrote about that here. The 15K started as a goal back in June. I set a lot of goals when i'm bored. hahah!

ok, so here it goes:

Sunday all 3 of us hydrated all day long. I was constantly refilling my water bottle. I went to bed in time to get 8 hours of sleep, even though i still woke up pretty tired.

Now when i normally run my long runs, i get up early and head out immediately and run. I don't eat anything until about 1-2 hours after my run.

But since we had to drive to the 15K and it would be close to 2 hours from the time i woke up till i started running i figured i'd need food. So i ate a half bagel and half cup of coffee (to help go the bathroom BEFORE the race).

here we are heading in (yes my ears look pretty big here, i think it's the way i wear my hat)

Remember the 5K? I didn't feel as cool bc the marathoners had the shoe chip time things and i didn't. so i was uber proud to have one today!!

it was so exciting to be walking into the corral (that's what it's called i think)

a little before (funny thing, i think i look better AFTER the race)

me and Sarah:

my cheerleader:

about to start!!!!!

Daniel caught us right as we made the first turn:

Dad: (on his 55th birthday!!!) he runs faster than me and Sarah so we let him go ahead...

Daniel surprised us at mile 2 (i heart this pic)

random pics of the course:

Mile 9: (which felt like mile 19)

My aunts made us a sign!!!

 

my other cheeleader:

daniel made a sign too

after:

 

SO happy to see him!!

Ok, if you've gotten this far...bless you.

so what happened was....

I pretty much hated the whole run. Every mile was hard. I've only had one really bad run before, and that was the first time i ran 6 miles. But my 7 and 8's were both SO good i was thinking if it got hard it would be after the 8th mile.

I fought for every step that day. i mean EVERY step. Not sure if it was the bagel and coffee before, the fact that we were in direct sunlight the whole time and it was HOT, OR that i was lied to.

I emailed the race people several weeks before to see if the course was flat or had hills. Some lady emailed me back and said it was flat..and i quote "pretty darn flat."

ummmm far from it. There were a minimum of 6 very steep hills. Not the long big ones, but the short steep ones you're almost crawling to get up. not to mention running......

i was not prepared in the least for these.

I got very dizzy twice and lightheaded, i was sure i was going to faint. i didn't think i was going to make it. seriously, not fun at all.

I crossed the finish line 2 minutes after my set goal, and that was already pretty generous in time to begin with.

I didn't ever get the runners high. even though this was the furthest i had EVER run, that i had run 99% of the entire thing...blah blah blah.

I'm still waiting for the high to come. I told Daniel I've got the runners low and feel like a complete loser at life. it's hard because when i'd run my 8's i LOVED them and def had the runners high. 15K, not so much.

It bothers me that i sucked so badly at it. Because I KNOW i can do so much better and it is what it is at this point.

We're contemplating doing a half marathon the end of October. I doubt it can go any worse than how i feel about the 15K. I haven't run in a week, and am getting back on track on Monday, hoping to add 4 miles to my 9 in the next 6 weeks.

we'll see....

thanks for staying with me on the journey!!

love
laura