Lately, I have been getting up at the crack of dawn to get my runs in. My close friend, Paula, met me at 6am for a short run on Thursday morning – in Calgary it was windy and wet – i was so thankful to have a buddy motivate me (even if she doesn’t know it) to get out there and do it! i ended up knocking off about 6k… perfect for a cold, windy, 6am run!
On Saturday, I hauled my butt out of bed to be out the door to start running at 6:30am – that way I could easily get in at least 10k before meeting my running group at 8am and finishing off my remaining k’s… so, I woke up at 5:30 (i need to eat an hour before), and was out the door by 6:30. I was rewarded with an absolutely gorgeous “cotton candy” cloud sunrise by the time I got to Prince’s Island Park.
I met up with my group around 8am, and we proceeded to go on what we thought was a 16km run. I didn’t check my GPS during the run, we just followed our 10’s and 1’s… As I approached what I thought was 21k, it started getting tough. the next 6k was tough… extra long walk breaks, and a slightly slower pace. My ankle also started to hurt (as I had rolled it earlier in the morning when it was dark and I couldn’t see very well); I found myself wincing at the pain – walking was actually harder than running because the pain was more noticeable. ANyway, alongside my running buddy, Jodi (aka moral support!!!) we finished our route – WOOHOO! I looked at my GPS. 17.6k… Plus 11.2k from my “pre-run”… holy hannah I ran 28.8k! What an amazing feat!!!! I am SO proud of myself! It’s amazing what proper sleep, proper nutrition (primarily that means ENOUGH food), and proper hydration can do! 42k keeps losing it’s overwhelming intimidation – I am about 13k away from my final race distance.
WOWSA!!!
jenbacca 