Week 17 - Day 5

I got up about 4:50 this morning ate some oatmeal and a banana and got my fuel belt ready to go. I got dressed and set out for my long run at about 5:30. When I made the first curve onto Farmwood I discovered that it was WINDY (turns out we had 17mph winds). It was dark and cloudy for the first 3 miles then it got light out, still cloudy. I ran the neighborhoods by my house for the first 5 miles then crossed the highway and ran the neighborhoods over there. I was so tired of the wind I tried to bargain with God that I would be happy to trade the wind for the rain that was in the forecast. Guess he thought I needed more resistance training. At about 11 miles I started on the new route I got off a map. It was a great place to run, out in the middle of nowhere, but quite a bit hillier then my normal training runs. It will be a great place to train on my bike. At about mile 15 I saw two other men walking. I was still in the middle of nowhere and I really don’t now where they came from. I noticed that one of them had a handgun tucked in his pants at the small of his back. I started to question the wisdom of my route, but I forged on. At about mile 18 there were about 9 cows out in a field. I had passed LOTS of other cows on this route but unlike all the other cows these cows started running toward me. Then they started running along the fence with me. I was very concerned that I was going to get outrun by a cow!!! Mile 20 got me back to the same old neighborhoods and I was really getting tired. I ended up walking for a little bit because my back was hurting and my feet were sliding around in my shoes (haven’t had that problem since I went to Fleet Feet and got these shoes). I starting running again and looped back by my house. I stopped at my mailbox to get a drink. Ronnie was having a problem with one of the dogs around here carrying his water bottles off while he was running, so we started putting them in the mailbox. I got my drink and tried to get my legs moving again. No dice, I was DONE. 22.5 miles in 3:48:04, 10:08 pace. I am very disappointed in myself. I felt like I did everything I could to prepare for this run but I just couldn’t make it. I have 3 weeks in which I taper off then it is race day. I sure hope that race day adrenaline gets me across that finish line; I am not feeling very confident right now.