Finally A Long Run

I hate the mornings.  I am not a morning person.  I can barely roll  out of bed to hit the snooze button on my alarm clock across the room.  This morning, I woke up late (as usual), but I managed to get in 14.08 miles.  It was a cool 61 degrees, slightly overcast and breezy.  I opted for my running suit and a long sleeve shirt as well as my weighted belt, my camelbak, and of course, my mp3 player.

The first 2 miles were slow and ugly as I tried to find a groove that worked.  Eventually I worked into a 9:35 min/mile pace.  By mile 3, my bladder was acting up from the 1/2 can of diet Sundrop that I downed before I hit the door, so I made a quick pit stop in the bushes.  I also had to take off my pullover as I was already over-heating.  After re-arranging my gear, I found my pace again and was going well.  Naturally with my pullover off, the wind picked up and I found myself getting cold.  Interestingly, I was more bothered by my torso being cold then my arms.  I can only figure that the mixture of the wind and my sweat-soaked shirt was a bit too cold.  Otherwise, my pace went well.  My route was mostly paved and somewhat hilly without being too steep.  

By mile 7, my back was somewhat sore from carrying the extra 10 lbs from my belt and camelbak, so I slowed down to eat part of my Cliff bar.  I got a couple of good bites before my hands quit working and I dropped the rest on the ground.  I cursed myself, picked up my trash and hit the road again.  Mile 8 winds up a long hill.  By this time, my body had started moving at a decent pace without my conscious effort, so I was moving along well.  I did start to notice my shoulders were getting sore as was my butt.  As I crested the hill, my mind and body desperate to finish the run started looking earnestly for mile 10.  After 5 minutes of running and checking my watch, I realized that I was not making up any time and may have been falling behind.  Mile 11 found me on the hardest part of my route as the shoulder of the road became non-existent.  Quite often I found myself running in the grass to avoid early traffic.  By mile 12, my entire body was tired, and every step felt like someone was kicking me in the knee.  That was also when my mp3 player quit on me and I was moving tuneless.  I trudged on realizing that my torture was almost over.  I hit mile 13 and turned into the horribly steep hill that sits at the front of my neighborhood.  I made it less than a quarter of the way up before I had to walk.  I had used up just about every bit of energy I had reaching mile 13, and I was practically dragging myself through my neighborhood to finish my run.  I found a little energy and finished my run in 2:15:00.

That was a tough run.  I wasn't sure if my head wasn't in it or if it was the additional weight.  At least, I did it and I really can't complain about my time.  I would have liked it to be closer to 9:00 mins/mile, but considering the distance, I'm still pretty happy.  I'm not sure how I'm going to do 26 miles as that 14 was hard.  I think I need a nap.