OUCH!

It was awful...it was really, really awful!

My body has never been so stiff and sore. I've been through childbirth twice..so I feel qualified to talk about pain. And this was worse!

Let's just start out by saying that it was my own damn fault. Having not run in many, many days is NOT the way to prepare for a 12 mile run. If I am really going to be committed to my goal, then I need to make certain that I get my weekday runs completed no matter what my crazy schedule is like.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the HB group was running in Irvine with the South Orange County (SOC)group. We are technically part of the same Team-in-Training chapter, but since we are spread out all over the county, we train separately. As we get closer to our races, however, we will be having more and more joint training sessions with the goal of becoming a more cohesive team.

So yesterday, we went down and ran the Irvine course with the SOC group. It is a much harder course, IMO, because of all the hills. A very lovely course so that made it nice. But it certainly didn't make it any easier.

Before we began the run, the SOC coach gave us a pep talk. It was good to get a sense of how the different coaches approach the runs. I thought he seemed nice until...he told us that the final mile before our turnaround was a MILE-long incline UP Turtle Rock. Suddenly he lost some serious nice points (reminds me of the experience BF and I had with our anthropology prof -- another story for another day.)

As usual, within the first few moments I could see the rest of the pack about 1/2 mile down the road...boy, are they speedy! But that was OK...sure and steady is our motto. The first incline came up within the first Mile of the run and already I knew that it was going to be a tough run.

Around Mile 2 I had to go to the bathroom and the public bathroom at Mile 2.5 wasn't going to be open yet. As luck would have it, Barnes & Noble was open extremely early due to the release of Harry Potter #6 so I was able to dash in there and take advantage of their facilities.

With a water station at Mile 3 to provide some sustenance, we headed through a lovely natural setting. The bunny was cute. The baby bobcat was NOT! It dawned on us that baby bobcats are generally not alone in the wilderness...so if Baby was visible, Mama probably wasn't too far away.

Running and running and running....and then we came to Mile 5. Another water station...hooray!! We saw many members of our group who were taking advantage of the Gatorade and oranges. Of course, they had already done their turnaround and were on their way BACK, but it was nice to chat with them anyway. This is when we (the Tortoises) began to worry...because one of our mentors, who is the smoothest, calmest runner I've ever seen, looked just plain beat! And if she was challenged by the hill...we were going to be in real trouble. The advice from our teammates: 1. Don't look up; and 2. Don't kill the people coming back down who say "almost there!"

I started out in great shape...and around 1/4 mile up the hill, we heard from others on the other side that we were "almost there." My guess is that they were trying to be supportive. But let's face it -- they were lying. And what's worse is that they filled me with false hope! In fact, we were NOT almost there. We weren't even close. And as we kept pushing on, I began to feel a nagging throb in my hip. I slowed down and finally had to walk up the rest of the way.

At the top, I really thought that it was all over. My hip was throbbing so badly and no matter how much I streched, I couldn't untangle the knots. I knew that my run was over and that I would need to walk the rest of the way -- 6 MILES. My running buddies are the greatest. They had promised me that we start together and we finish together. I definitely held them back but they made good on their promise, never abandoning me or making me feel bad about slowing them down. You guys are the best!

Not much else to say. It was an agonizing walk. And the most demoralizing part was that when we finally got back, almost everyone was gone. The promised ice foot bath had been drained of the water and the massage therapist was packing up his stuff. So you can be certain that I'll be shooting off an email to our TNT Campaign Manager about that in the morning!

By the time I got home, I could barely walk. I had visions of PC prying me out of the car. That is how stiff I got during the 25 minute drive home. I heaved my poor body into a tub filled with frigid water and was filled with a sense of relief. It was over. The worst was over.

And then I slept...

Not in the tub. I managed, after only two attempts, to get myself out of the tub and then took a warm shower before collapsing into the bed. PC asked me something...maybe about the run or maybe about the meaning of life...who knows. I was so exhausted that I could not form any cohesive sentence. I mumbled something and sunk into a deep, deep sleep.

The rest of the day was shot. Though I was conscious for a few hours in the late afternoon and early evening, I was not my usual chipper self. PC finally made me retire to the bedroom around 8:00pm and that was the end of me.

Today?? Still sore. But at least it is better than yesterday and it's my off day so I don't have to run again until tomorrow. Won't that be interesting??

Have a super day ;)