Running is therapy

I took a vacation day at work today since I had an appointment I had to keep. However, it wasn’t an all day thing, so I wanted to grab a run.

The plan was 6 miles. When I went to strap on the Garmin it shut right back off. Dead batteries. Which is lame, because I am pretty sure I just charged it. This means that it might have come on in my laptop bag. At any rate, I was disappointed because I didn’t really pay 200 dollars to let that thing sit on the counter while I go running. I will have to keep an eye on it.

That left running a known distance, or running for time. I decided to sorta do both. After reading about an upcoming 5K on Bill’s blog, I thought it might be cool to head down there for my run. Did an out and back of 30 minutes each way ensuring I got my 6 miles in.

I don’t really have stats to share, because only suckers hit the lap button themselves, but I did have a pretty interesting run.

First of all, there was a guy who was on the trail in front of me and he was going at a slightly slower pace than me (I am guessing he was running about 10 minute miles), I decided I would try to reel him in. I caught him, but I did it slowly. I wanted to simulate catching someone in a half, not in a 800M sprint. When I finally caught him, he turned out to be a really nice guy and we chatted for about a quarter mile till I decided I wanted to run solo again and I pulled ahead. He was also a recent Half finisher, though I didn’t ask his time. He mentioned the upcoming 5K and said he’d be there. I might check it out, depending on how my weekend shapes up.

Second, and more significant, I got really sick on the run around the 3 mile mark. From time to time I get chills when I run, even if it’s not really hot out. I also had waves of nausea roiling over me, it was similar to a couple of other times when I have had to quit runs. As soon as it started to happen today, I resolved that I was _NOT_ going to stop this run. I didn’t care if they had to get bloodhounds to track down my corpse out there, there was no way I was bagging this run at the half way point. I kept running, and I almost threw up a few times. After about a mile of that, it started to settle down, and I was able to finish only slightly short of where I started.

I was happy that it happened the way it did and that I was able to make a stand there. I feel better knowing I can pull through something like that on a long run and still finish strong.

Happy running!