A tough run!

When it is already too hot to be exercising at 5:40am, you know it is going to be a long, long run!!

Because of the crazy heat and humidity that the storm down in Mexico has brought upon beautiful SoCal, our coach decided that we would start our 14 mile run at 6am instead of the usual 7am start time. A very good idea!

Within just moments, and I do mean moments, sweat was POURING down my face. Thank God for Coolmax

Today was tough. Really tough. The heat certainly contributed to the difficulty of the run. Also, hydration -- or the lack thereof -- was another major factor. I finished my huge thing of Gatorade by Mile 5 and we didn't have a water station until Mile 7/9 (Mile 8 was the turn-around so we got to hit the station again on the way back!) Unfortunately it just wasn't enough given the extreme temperature of the day.


I don't know if it was the heat or the distance or the extremely painful hamstring or even the recurrent nagging in my hip -- it took close to 5 hours to finish the 14 hours. Totally unacceptable. No, I am not just being hard on myself. Just realistic. I only have about 7 hours to complete the
entire marathon...so 14 miles in 5 hours isn't going to cut it.

This reminds me of some sick word problem from a long-forgotten math class.

If it takes Rebecca 5 hours to run 14 miles and she must complete a total of 26.2 miles in 7 hours, how fast must she run in order to save face with the entire Jewish community of Orange County??

OK, the word problems in elementary school weren't quite so depressing, but you get my point.

It wasn't like I was the only one struggling on Saturday. The other Tortoises had trouble as well. Our Campaign Manager and Team Captain sat with us after our run and gave us some tips for running a faster mile, as well as some things we could do to make the hills a bit easier on our bodies. My goal is to run hills on Monday and do speedwork on Wednesday...with an easy 4 mile run on Thursday just to keep my mileage base for the week.

This is the week that I must recommit to the team. For most people, the only thing that might hold them back from recommitment is the inability to raise their funds. Having raised over $4,600 to date (!), the only thing holdimg me back is my speed. I know that I can do this...well, that is what I keep telling myself.

Sometimes I don't feel certain at all...