We Need to Talk, I'm Having Second Thoughts...

First of all, CONGRATS to my Uncle Gerry who is running the Honolulu Marathon today!!  How exciting and what an awesome accomplishment!!  So proud of you :)  I hope to one day tackle a marathon myself...but that day will be in the distant, very distant (after today's run) future.

Now, I didn't get a chance to attempt to do my 6 miler yesterday (Saturday) because of a few reasons:
1) I worked from 8-2
2) I went out for pizza after working all morning
3) It was raining, hard, ALL DAY
4) I was exhausted
5) I finished doing all my Christmas shopping instead!

So as I was preparing for bed last night, I knew what awaited me first thing in the morning.  I was hoping that the rain would stop and it would turn to snow since it was supposed to transition earlier in the day but never did.

When morning came it was 24 degrees and lightly snowing but we definitely didn't get as much snow as the weather peeps were anticipating.  So I put my layers on- I wore everything I had on during my last workout with the addition of my fleece, my hat instead of headband, and some newly purchased Adidas Windbreaker Pants.

And well, today sucked.  All around.  The first mile felt good.  I even had thought to myself how peaceful this is and wondered why don't more people do this.  THEN like a flash of lightening it hit me.  All of a sudden I wasn't running through deserted trails but it was like somebody turned the open roads into a gigantic Slip 'N Slide.  I spent the next mile shuffling my feet more than running.  And it was at that time that my calves really started cramping up.  By the time I reached my third mile I felt like I entered a wind tunnel!  I probably looked and felt like I was running slow motion through mounds of tapioca pudding on a sheet of ice with giant sand bags on top of each of my feet.  It was awful.  And by this point I was so far away from home that I couldn't just turn around and call it quits.  I had three miles until I'd be home again.

Miles four and five got progressively worse.  My thighs were screaming, calves were aching, big right toe was burning and the only thing that was running at a steady pace was my nose.  This is when I was really contemplating breaking up with my Winter runs.  Why was I doing this to myself?  Have I gone crazy?!  Nothing about my adventure today was enjoyable except for those very few short minutes at the beginning.  If the weather is like this on Race Day I'm doomed.

So I've seriously been having major doubts about myself.  And I'm not looking forward to next weekend when I'm supposed to do a 7 (S-E-V-E-N!!) miler.  It's been 2 hours since I finished my run and I'm still freezing.  The one, ONE, positive thing that happened today was that I did my first ever 6 mile run (or shuffle!).  It was 5.98 miles to be exact and even though it felt like I was out there for a good solid 4 hours, I was only out there for 1 hour and 19 minutes.

Alrighty, well I'm hungry.  We'll see where my mixed feelings take me this week.  At least next up is a 2 mile Easy Run.  That should be doable.

Until next time...hopefully!