10 miles of suckage

Yeah, I'm a bit behind on blogging. Lots to rant about, rave about, and discuss.

I ran Wednesday & Thursday, I think, but I don't really remember. Heh. Wow. I didn't realize I hadn't posted since the 1st.

So, Saturday, I had a dilemma. There was a 10K locally that I had some interest in running. I wanted to pick my half marathon target pace and see if I could sustain that for the entire race, to see how fathomable the idea was. I also wanted to do a long run, as it's been a while since I have, and I kind of want to run the Red Baron half marathon in November.

So, a quandry. What to do? Well.. it was like this. The 10K started at 9, so I figured I had to have myself out of bed by 8. If I woke up and felt like it, I'd do the 10K. Otherwise, it was a long run.

8:00 came and went, so there ya have it.

Mid day came, and out I went for a long run. Had a t-shirt and some track pants on, and felt pretty comfortable, temperature wise. I also brought my phone to serve as a lifeline, worse case, and a music player, best case. (It is somewhat relevant).

My goal was for 10:30 miles for 8, followed by 2 at 9:00.

Off I went.

Wouldn't you know it, I was starting to settle into a groove, and about a mile into it, a dog started chasing me. A little dog, mind you, so I could indeed outrun it. But, there went my 'zone'. And I had to disrupt my pace, of course.

People, if you're going to have dogs, and you want them to run free.. get some land to do it. A little tiny lot in the middle of town is not space for them to run free. It just isn't. I'm all for them running free. (It seems so much more humane than a leash). But give them some space.

So, I outran the dog as the owner just stood there. Nice. OK. Whatever.

I meandered through the neighborhood of one of my old apartments, and it was actually pretty decent. Having the vacant crackhouse burning down a few years ago must have helped. Not that it was a bad neighborhood, but it could be a little rough around the edges at times.

All along this way, the headphone plug kept loosening slightly out of my phone, so the music would cut in and out, or just be on one side. Etc etc. I may have to invest in some Bluetooth headphones or something. Not that I really want to drop the coin for that. Anyone use any of those?

Meander, meander.. run through the streets and neighborhoods. My run was sitting at about 5 miles at the time, and I felt the outside of my left leg tensing. Sigh. ITBS. Again. Yay. So, from here on out, I stopped and stretched about every mile. That helped some, but it was just nagging on me. Just suckage.

And, my times were slipping.. 10:30, 10:35, 10:40, 10:45. Grrrrrr. Suckage.

That wears on you. It really does. I know I should be really happy that I'm out here running. 2 years ago, the prospect of me getting up and running just wasn't even on the horizon. So now, I'm upset that my run of 5+ miles wasn't going smoothly. Grr.

I did find a really really nice street around mile 6, that I had never been on. The streets were all clean, the sidewalks were double-wide slate tiles. Really nice homes. Kind of neat seeing that. I'll have to run over there more often. (Too bad the street is only .75 miles long)

So, I'm on the way back, running downtown. This is where the run really went to crap. There's these two women walking towards me, and one of them starts to make fun of me running. Really? You really had to go there? I don't know what it was about her, but it just totally got under my skin. Normally, I just don't care what people think. Certainly not what strangers think.

I know I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I'm not fat by any means. I think I look like I'm in decent enough shape. And this woman was just so totally obviously not. I'm not trying to judge her, and maybe she has a medical condition or something, but.. ok, I'll judge her. She was a fat slob with nothing to do on a Saturday but make fun of someone who is trying to take care of themselves.

And, so even worse than her getting under my skin was...

I stooped to her level.

Yep. I may have muttered something as I ran by.

Don't know if she heard me or not. Doesn't matter.

I was mad at myself for doing that, too. Even more suckage.

But really, she wasn't the type who would understand a debate of "Yeah, I'm out here running 10. What are you doing today?"

Anyways... I got the 8 done, (somehow winding up at a 10:30 pace.. must have poured it on after a bit) and set the watch for 9:00.. Banged the first one out really well.. 8:50, I think. The second one was 9:12, I think, so I didn't quite make the 9 min/mile pace.

But, I did 10.

And yeah, my leg was sore Sunday. And today. Suckage.

Oh well. Keep on rockin.