Ok... as if getting up at 5:30 on a Saturday is bad enough I had a wapping 18 miles ahead of me. The plus side was that I knew I would have company along the way. So I dragged my butt out of bed and force fed myself before heading out to meet some members of the Windham Athletic Club. There were some blogger friendly folks among the mix...the every cheery AA, Di and Beth. We headed out for a 6.5 mile trail run first with a couple nice size hills, some really wet fields and as a nice suprise the loop runs right by the house that I rented when I was at UCONN 11 years ago.
Since we were going to be running on trails and I don't have a "geeky" fuel belt I carried my Powerade for this portion of the run. For the most part that worked out fine but on the way back I could feel the strain in my neck. After dropping off some of the group, had a Clif Shot more Powerade and we headed out for another 8. This time there was water planted so no lugging water necessary. About 1 mile out I wiped my runny nose with my brand new white shirt to find I had a bloody nose- UGH and YUCK! I had the same problem last year around this time of year and never figured quite out why. It's not a gushing thing, more like a runny nose but bloody... any ideas?
Anywho... we kept on grinding and found our water about mile 5, had another ClifShot, some water and back at it. My legs were definately feeling the effects from the race on Monday and my quads felt like lead. The hills were great on the glutes but not on my mental toughness. I just wanted to be done. I couldn't think of anything else to talk about, I just kept focusing on the hill which was beating me.
Back to the car with still 3 miles to be completed I contemplated calling it a day. After all, I had to get home to get ready for my neice's 1 yr bday party and I didn't want to be out of commission for the hokey pokey!! But looking at Dianna all rearing to go I couldn't say no. 3 more miles, no big deal until we went up the BIGGEST HILL I have ever seen. I was seeing red, Dianna was fearing my anger but... we made it and I made my 18 for the day. Sore body but good peace of mind that I stuck it out, met my goal and did it on an extremely tough course. I am going to kick the MCM's a**!!!! I hope you are ready David!!!