Running To Sonoma

Fundraising first:  If you haven’t yet taken a moment to donate on my Team Challenge website, and still intend to, please take a look now!  The half marathon is just 13 days away, and I need your help in order to reach my fundraising goals. 

And now, the long run!  I went out at 6:30 yesterday morning, planning on two and a half hours.  I began fueling early, about 20 minutes in, with watermelon sport beans (with caffeine!), and continued with those every 10 to 20 minutes.  My water bottle held a frozen chunk of electrolyte drink and water, which nicely lasted most of the way through the run.  My calf/ankle held up pretty well for the majority of the route, which took me on a tour of the Bay View neighborhood (hi Missy!).    Just north of South Shore park, the area’s red fox made an appearance on the sidewalk ahead of me.  He had crossed the street and parked himself at the base of a tree, and was busy peering up into it.  I clicked my tongue and he turned his head to notice me, then scamper into the bushes.  I always see lots of rabbits and squirrels on my runs, it’s nice to see a different critter!

I can’t seem to make it past the 1:45 mark, though.  Heading south along Lake Drive, I paused to stretch a little because by now, my calf was paining me just a little.  I had convinced myself to continue anyway, up the hill, around my south 3.5 mile loop and then return home when I went to take another drink and discovered that I would be running that loop dry.  It was then that I wimped out and just ran home, clocking 8.26 miles in 1:46:27.

I probably should have just refilled my bottle with ice/water/electrolyte powder and gone out again.  However, I was too busy being disappointed in myself for my performance.  Even though I felt good all the way through and ran well over some pretty steep inclines, I let one thing bring me down.  Idea for next time: prepare two water bottles the night before, and plan a stop at home to switch out water bottles.

Using the sport beans early on helped a great deal.  I need to buy more to pack for Napa.  I still have the caffeine Cherry and the non-caffeine Berry Blue packets, which I’ll be using in my training over the next week.  Also, Carrie – taking water with the caffeine sport beans helped eliminate the slightly bitter aftertaste!  I blame that aftertaste on the caffeine, though.  Overall, it didn’t bother me.  Also, no post-run intestinal distress with the beans, like I had with the get that one day.  Ooof.

Good thing, too, as we had Scott’s family over yesterday at noon for grilling and general hang-out time, since that was the only day of the holiday weekend that we had Trayton.  Post-run, I made blueberry ice cream and frosted the chocolate cake I had baked Saturday night.  Scott grilled chicken breasts, his brother & family brought chips and fresh salsa (yum!) and his mom brought over a tasty salad and also a hot dog casserole, about which I was skeptical, but it was very good and the kids loved it.  Though I think Scott and his older brother Mike enjoyed it more.

I did have trouble last night with my right leg, of all things.  Raising my knee, going up steps, swinging my leg up into bed even was difficult and painful.  I took some ibuprofen before going to sleep, and it seems to be better today, though some residual pain is lingering.  My ankle/calf seems fine, though I am looking forward to Thursday’s PT appointment.