It’s 7am on New Year’s Eve…. Everyone has big plans for the evening celebrations, but not me…. Might as well start the party early and run 26.2 miles, right?
Sean has some friends who hosted a fun, informal, trail run…. There was one loop that was about 6.5 miles. I planned to do four loops and complete a full marathon. Well, see…… what had happened was… Ok A of all, I was three weeks out of the Jacksonville race and still full from Christmas cookies, wine, and tons of good food. I only ran once between the two events so my training was lacking to say the least. B of all, I was a newbie to the whole trail running thing. It’s a whole different world than road running. On the road you learn to find you comfort zone and just coast from one mile to the next. There’s no relaxing and no coasting on a trail. The second your mind relaxes you stub your toes on a rock or trip over a root. Neither of which are conducive to running.
Of course I came to the race with Sean, which means we’re nearly 10 minutes late. We missed the instructions and course directions. He doesn’t care. Why would he? He’ll be with the lead pack of runners that he knows and they’ll show him the right course. Not me…. I fall in to the back of the pack. I have to stay with the group that’s running a little slower so I have people to give me directions.
It was a great trail course that started in the back of a neighborhood and connected with part of Sweet Water Park. I enjoyed the trail and scenes but needed to be more careful with the terrain. Once I left the back of the pack, I got out on my own, had my iPod playing and let my guard down a bit. Bam! Slipped on some wet leaves or a rock. I think I hyper extended my knee in effort to keep from falling and tumbling all the way to the ground.
I walked for a few minutes to gather my composure and refocus on the trail. I started running again and finished the first loop. There weren’t any runners at the water station so I refilled my water bottle, ate a few jelly beans and continued along the way. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this was a bad idea. My knee was really hurting. I blamed it on my running shoes. I couldn’t expect to wear road shoes on a trail. It wasn’t comfortable. So I continued to run/walk, sometimes I wanted to crawl, through the second loop. I didn’t know how I was going to continue 13 more miles of this.
As I approached the water station the second time, I noticed there were a lot of people gathered around. They were all standing there drinking beer. That was it. I was done…. I was hurting, and how can I turn down a cold beer. Well, all and all I can say I still ran the Yetti Spaghetti Half Marathon J
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