What have I gotten myself into?!

That's exactly what was going through my mind during the run on Saturday :( Urg... it was a tough one, mentally and physically.

First though, Friday night... I drove over to the Coliseum BART station and met up with Petra, Amy, Claudia and Rocky. We had pretty good seats in section 105 but we might as well have been in the bleachers for all the game watching we actually did! We spent most of the game chit chatting, and I spent most of it trying to avoid the lure of cotton candy man who seemed to constantly be hovering nearby. Since most of us had to get up early the next morning, we didn't stay for the whole game and left during the 7th inning stretch. Don't ask me what the final score was, or even what the score was while I was there... I think they lost though :(

Saturday I was off to San Leandro at 6:00 AM. Claudia needed to start her run a little early so she could still fulfill her Fall team cappy duties. I offered to start early with her. Since the team was running 14 miles, but our schedule said 15, we decided to start with the 1 mile loop that goes around a point at the marina. That way we could get that extra mile in first, instead of tagging it on at the end when we probably wouldn't want to do it!

After that first mile, we walked over to the starting point at the other trail where the team was doing the long run. We stretched and then took off. Already at 6:45 it was starting to get warm. I had dressed for cooler weather because San Leandro is often overcast and windy but I could tell already that it was going to be a hot, sunny day. Unfortunately, I was right :(

We reached the 2 mile mark (which for us was actually 3 miles with that extra loop we did at the start) and it was time for Claudia to turn back. She was going to run back to the start, and then come back out and finish the mileage when the Fall team started. Just before she turned back, we ran into Rocky and Phil. They were out there setting up the water stop for the Fall volunteer that was running late. Claudia and I being the nice people we are, we hung out to help them set up. :D Once we were finished, it was too late for Claudia to run back so she hitched a ride back to the start with Phil. That meant I was on my own from there :(

The first 2.5 miles of the San Leandro trail is pretty nice... most of it's marked every .25 miles and it's all paved. But after 2.5 miles, it turns into a gravelly path. And it sucks. BIG time.
:( Running on all these little (and not so little) rocks really wreaks havoc on your joints and feet. It also slows down your running pace, at least for me, because I'm trying to avoid the bigger rocks and keep myself from spraining an ankle. :( Finally I made it out to the halfway point at mile 7 (mile 8 for me). By this time everything hurt a little, especially my back. The last time I trained for a marathon, I had some problems with my lower back getting really tight while I ran. It seems like it's starting up again this season too. I put this stuff called MyoMed (one of our client's products) on my back before we started out to try and prevent it from stiffening up too much. I put some more on at the halfway point and it seemed to help for awhile. I could feel my that my lower back was tight but the cooling sensation made it feel better.

This was the point where things started to get tough mentally. Things were already starting to ache and I knew that I still had to run 7 more miles to get back to the start. It seemed like a daunting task. And then I started to think about how when I got back to the start, I will have done only 15 miles... if it was marathon day, I'd also have to pull out 11 more miles on top of that. Oh my god, there was no way! Well, I KNOW I can do it... I just have to remind myself of that sometimes!

The 7 miles back were not so fun but not awful. I had to walk a few times, and stop to stretch a couple times. Everything was just getting achier and achier. Finally I got back on the paved trail and knew that I only had a little over 2 miles to go! That made me happy! During the last two miles, I was paying close attention to my watch. I really wanted to finish in under 3 hours so I was trying to push myself to make it, but not push myself too early and completely crash. The last half mile or so I really kicked it in (or at least it felt like it... I was probably running no faster than some people walk at this point!) and I did it! My final time for exactly 15 miles was just a hair under 3 hours... I think it was about 2:59 and change! I was happy about that my my body felt like I just got beat up by a gang of thugs. :(

I hung around at little bit with the team, and then Claudia, Rocky and I headed over to La Salsa for our usual post-San Leandro lunch. Yummy shrimp tacos :D I finally got home a little after 1:00 and then spent the next couple of hours cleaning the house-- vacuuming, steam cleaning some spots and dusting. It wasn't until about 3:00 that I finally took a shower, and then took a nap. When I woke up from my nap I noticed that I got sunburned... even through my shirt. I had on a short sleeve shirt but my shoulders and chest got a little pink. I guess that's what happens when you're out running for 3 hours in the sun. :( Now I know to put sunscreen EVERYWHERE, not just where my skin is exposed! The rest of the night was spent relaxing and watching some tv. I think doing all that after I ran was actually good... I didn't wake up from my nap feeling sore at all, just a little stiff. Even today I feel really good!

Sunday I did a little more cleaning, especially in the kitchen. It's amazing how dirty those little nooks and crannies that can get! Later that day Claudia and Rocky came over for dinner. I found a recipe on a blog that I read for spicy shrimp and even though I'm not a fan of spicy stuff, it looked really good. It was super easy to make and turned out well-- not spicy at all! There was a lot of shrimp, and we (mostly Rocky) finished off most of it. We also had a yummy apple tart with ice cream for desert :D My belly was very happy!