As my running increases, I could possibly see that my desire to write about it also could increase. It's been almost a year now since I've been in a slump running-wise. I was still running last year in July and August, but I was gradually decreasing the miles to try to ease my foot pain.
At the end of November when I ran for the first time in 2 months I was elated to go run, but taking a slow approach to increasing my miles, while good for my feet, seems to have affected my desire to go run negatively. Lately I have noticed that I just don't want to run very badly, even now the thought of running 12 miles in 2 weeks (this next Sunday is a scale back week to 7 miles) does not excite me. A few years ago when I decided to do a half marathon, the higher mileage excited me. I was excited to see if I could run 8, 9, 10 miles. Now it's not as exciting to me. I don't know why and it bothers me. I'd really like to get that excitement back. Maybe once I go over the half marathon mileage it will, I'll be in new territory again. But after this marathon, then what? I don't want to be an ultra runner, it seems crazy. (I've said that before, about a half marathon and about a marathon).
Last week I was a little worried about running 9 miles. I looked on MapMyRun to find out when the last time I had run 9 miles was (June 2014). I obsessed about going to get some sort of fuel for the run, I even laid out my clothes the night before and decided what to eat and drink and how early to get up. Yesterday I laid around all morning, drank some coffee, ate my eggs, and then decided to start getting ready for my run about 10am. I was almost out the door when I thought "crap! 10 miles, I hope I have fuel!" Luckily I had some left over from last week. And off I went.
It was actually a pretty eventful run, which usually isn't a good thing.
I did the same route that I did last week, and knew I was going to add a loop that was about half a mile, so I figured I'd just run an extra half mile at the end of the run. I always end on the same trail and it's 2 miles long, but I usually end at the one mile mark, but if I need to keep going to get the mileage I know that I can. I don't like adding the mileage at the end because I'm tired and it's a psychological pain to run past where I normally end, but I can do it.
In mile 5 I thought that I should find a bathroom and remembered that there was one at a park I was going to run past, it was out of my way, but I needed to add that half a mile to my run so I thought I'd take a detour and see if it was enough. I ended up not needing the bathroom, but the detour was exactly the half mile I needed, so I was happy I wouldn't have to tag it on at the end of the run.
And then 2 things happened in mile 8. First a guy walking towards me kept smiling really big at me. As I got closer he said "you passed me on Divison." I smiled and said something brilliant, I'm sure, and kept running. The spot I had passed him was in mile 3 and even though I had run 4.5 more miles, he had walked around 3 miles. Such a coincidence, which I found nice.
Then right before I hit the 8 mile mark I hit something with my hand. I looked down and saw something fly away, which I thought was a fly, maybe a bee, and then a second thing hit me. And then a whole swarm of them were chasing me and stinging me. I screamed, ran faster, screamed, and screamed again. And then I was falling. It's funny how things in your mind seem to take forever, but happen so fast. That fall seemed to take forever, I was probably halfway down and still thinking I could recover. I didn't, and skidded on my hip and elbow about a foot (or it felt like a foot). Again, that whole thing where it feels like forever, but is actually only a few min. As I was laying on the ground I was thinking I need to get up now before the bees really attack, I was probably on my feet seconds after I hit the ground, and was running again.
Somehow the bees left me not long after I fell and I ran to a grassy area and sat down. I assessed the damage, I could only feel one sting at that time, but the scrapes on my elbow and hip were pretty bad. I thought about stopping my run, but decided I could finish. So after sitting for few min, I got up and continued running. The last two miles felt terrible, but when I got home and looked at my splits, the last mile was my fastest one.
I finished my 10 miles and felt badass afterward. The utter exhaustion I felt last week after my 9 miles didn't hit me this week. I think it was the late night on the 4th and the early run on the 5th that made me so tired. I was happy that I was able to function much better this week. I even cleaned my house. ; ) I am also less sore today, and other than my hip and elbow, feel okay. =) (Oh, and in case you're wondering, my feet are fine.)
When I told a friend that I was attacked by bees, he said "you've been attacked by a dog, by your neighbor, and now bees." He's right, maybe I should quit running? Not likely. =) (I'm so happy we moved away from those crazy neighbors, by the way.)
Yesterday evening I got curious as to when my last 10 mile run was, so I looked it up. My last 10 mile run was Sept 1, 2013. 2013! And my last run longer than 9 miles was Sept 8, 2013, my last half marathon. It seriously doesn't seem like it's been that long.
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