Sunday, March 30, 2008

Yeech!

Lazy Bones Me (my "Saturday" name) did not get up to run with my running group yesterday morning.  I woke up at 6:30 am to feed our army of hungry cats and then promptly turned off the alarm and went back to sleep.  

Got up about 11:00 am (ahhhhh) and then hit the roads about 1:00 pm for my Long Slow Distance run.  My course took me from near our house out to Minneahaha Falls and back -- basically following a large section of the Twin Cities Marathon route.


Although the thermometer at our house read 44 degrees, it did not take in to account the blustery winds that whipped across Lake Harriet and remained as a constant "in my face" reminder for the run out to the falls.  Brrrr.

I felt pretty good on the way out and it was very nice to run the parkway.  The path, which runs parallel to Minnehaha Creek,  is quite beautiful any time of year, and yesterday was no exception.  The creek was open and there were lots of ducks huddled along side the bank.  Snow is melting, people were out and about; it was great to be outside. 

I got to the falls and took a peek at them....Lovely.  And then waited in line for about 10 minutes for three people to use the one available portapotty.  (The park pavilion -- and all its inside bathroom space -- isn't open for the season yet.)   

I lost pretty much all of my mojo waiting in line and by the time I was ready to head back, I just couldn't get my head around the run back.  

I had to do a lot of pep-talking to myself on the way back.  I vacillated between toughing it out; calling Hubby to have him come pick me up; finding a cab; finding a bus or otherwise throwing in the towel.  

I did make it back on my own, but it was quite discouraging.  I had vivid flashbacks of those very dismal miles of the marathon, where I question my sanity and my ability to hold it together.  And this was just a lousy "little" 14-mile run!

I also spent a lot of time debating dropping down to the Fargo 1/2 marathon.  I have still not exactly determined if I'll switch races, but the idea of switching really sounded appealing yesterday.

Today, I plotted the actual course on MapMyRun.  Turns out, I ran 14.87 miles -- so slightly longer than I anticipated....and I don't really feel too rough today.  Not very sore; not too tuckered out.


I have until April 11th to make up my mind about switching distances.  

The question is:  do I run the marathon to just run the marathon (with a very small chance of PRing) or do I move down to a more comfortable distance because I'm a weeny?

5 comments:

Sunshine said...

Fun to read about your eastward run. (Makes you wonder what people do in porta-potties?) Glad you made it back OK. Good luck with your decision.

How about this SNOW???
Thanks for suggesting the "part 3" title. I had been leaning toward "Not Again!"
Trying to keep positive.
We did get in a few outdoor runs during the recent spring season!

Sunshine said...

Thanks!!!

Sunshine said...

We ran in the snow on Gateway today.
Has all of your snow melted?

Nat said...

As someone once told me, whatever you decide will be the right decision.

Rachel said...

I understand your pain in this decision. I just toiled over the same thing myself...keeping at a half or continuing on to a whole. Tough decision!