WORKOUT -
Ran in Dana Point
18.1 miles/2:31
some hills,
hot and sweaty and stupid
(on my part)
If you read this, you know this morning didn’t happen according to plan. Yesterday we had one mess after the other… and I’m not even talking about my hair.
Monica and I saw a motorcycle wreck happen right in front of us – scary.
Anyways, I wanted to get some miles in before it got too hot so I got up at 5am and prepared to sweat out all my non-vital organs.
Didn’t eat any breakfast but took a bunch of gels and 2 bottles of Nuun.
I drove over to Dana Point just as the sun was rising over the harbor. Being a total morning person, this was my jam.
And this is where the idiot part comes in: Accuweather says it’s suppose to feel like 98 degrees today and I leave my water and gels in the car like a complete moroff.
I took 1 gel with me thinking that I’d circle back to the car in 5-6 miles. But then I kept finding new trails and streets and neighborhoods to run in and didn’t make it back to the car until 15.5 miles later.
By then I was mentally done. I sat down on the curb and chugged a bottle of Nuun, ate a pack of GU chomps and called my husband trying to decide whether to quit or finish 18.
He gave me some really wise advice and encouraged me to finish what I started.
Just kidding. He didn’t even answer the phone.
But I did decide to quit being a whinebag (it’s hot everywhere! it’s summer!) and finish the 18 miles. Exactly zero of the miles were anywhere close to goal pace, but whatev; I still managed to sweat 4 layers of skin off. I wore my lightest running skirt that I own and still wrung out the thing like a dish rag when I was done. head to toe, soaking wet.
At least I recovered like a champ:
A salty salad, compression socks and a $1 large Diet Coke. boom.
I’m thinking I deserve a glass of bubbly for surviving… the drive-thru line at McDonalds. Seriously everyone was grubbing up at McD’s this morning. And you know us runners: we can run for 20 miles but don’t expect us to get out of cars and actually walk inside. nope, can’t do it.
{Had a late night margarita at Chili’s last night and not kidding, everyone who was working knew my husband by name. I told them to expect Christmas cards from us.}
Anyone have any dumb rookie maneuvers pulled lately that you want to share?
I recently dropped my new camera on the hardwood floor and cracked the screen. Just found out that it would cost more to fix than the camera’s worth and it wasn’t cheap!
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{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
Way to stick out the run! I don’t know how you run solo. I would talk to myself and people would think I was weird.
i talk to myself in the car alot. i pretend that i have a bluetooth in so people don’t think im crazy.
WOW! Thought I was being all tough when I ran 5.5 miles in 80% humidity this morning! lol Way to go on finishing!
I’ve been a silent reader now for a few weeks, but I just wanted to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. Never fails to make me laugh/smile.
thank you!
Funny story…. My husband went to chilis so much in lbk that one of our ushers in our wedding was the bartender. Wish I was kidding.
Ive been ortinate enough not to break anything (so far, where’s that piece of wood to knock on), but I did plug my Garmin up to the charger, and come back two hours later to strap it on (hehehe) and go for my run, only for it not to turn on!! What the hell?!
Oh. It’s not plugged into the wall. Yep.
Nice run! I hate when I make rookie mistakes like that.
I think the last one I made was forgetting to wear sunscreen on a long bike ride. My shoulders really paid for it.
I feel like I constantly make rookie mistakes. Right now, I’m trying to focus on resting adequately.
the heat makes it tough to run out there… good for you for finishing it out… even though Jaymo didn’t answer the phone! lol… I’m a bum and probably would have just quit :-p
I LOVE me some NUUN! I’m actually giving some away on my blog right now because I’m celebrating being on a 12 day summer break before I start back to school… AGAIN lol…
Rookie mistake… hmm… Getting blisters from wearing stupid cotton socks but being too lazy to lube up with body glide OR too much of a cheapo to buy socks that wont give me blisters lol
I am super impressed that you made it 15 miles without water or gels. I’d probably die after 10, or maybe less without water on a hot day. You have some serious mental fortitude.
My most recent rookie mistake (there are so many!) was charging my Garmin the night before a long run and then leaving it on top of my heart rate monitor overnight. Apparently that drained the battery so my Garmin died a mile into my run and kept beeping every few seconds to tell me it was dying. It would not stop beeping! This made for an incredibly annoying long run.
Congrats on sticking it out and finishing! I’m ’bout to be a rookie realll soon. I’m training for a marathon with a couple girls and the farthest we’ve run so far is 14 miles. Next weekend we are running 16 miles, which is the first time I’ll be bringing any gels or shot bloks or anything.
Any suggestions on which kind to get, when to take them or how much of them to take?
It’s amateur hour over here!
Nice run even with the fuel problem. I’d probably have keeled over and died 6 miles in….
I can’t run long or even anything more than 10km (6 miles) without a friend or group! I don’t know how you do it! You’re a champ! And I’m being lazy…or I call it “being smart” and cross training/elliptical + strength training today.
I was so excited to get up at the butt-crack of dawn this morning and resume my early morning Sunday long runs before church. I’ve been planning it all week and the temps were picture perfect here in the midwest! (I’ve had a fibular stress fracture in my right leg and have been off running for eight extremely long weeks, only resuming treadmill running last week.)
But all my plans went down the tube when a local girl running down a gravel road in our town was almost attacked by 3 guys in a white van. The van drove up behind her and when they opened the back door, one of the guys told her to get in. She bolted into the woods (we live in the COUNTRY, town population 900) and started calling people while all THREE guys chased her. She lost them at some point and laid down behind a fallen tree until she heard them say that “she must be gone.” Afterwards, the person she was calling said that they could hear the guys yelling at her.
My heart is in my throat just telling her story! I am so freaked out!! I never run without mace or my phone, but it’s not enough to calm me at this point. It goes without saying that I am LOVING my treadmill right now! I’m sure if I was in a group of people, or even two people, it would be enough to deter any wannabe attackers but I have always run by myself. Always. There is a very rare occasion when my sister is in town and we will run together, but 99.9% of the time it’s just me…and I like it that way. Til now! I hope they catch these guys and we can all go to feeling safe again soon.
FELLOW RUNNERS- please be safe out there! xoxo
DUDE. Coming from AZ I thought the AFC half would be a walk in the park…you are smart for missing it. I wanted to DIE.
AFC is always hot and the 6th Street hill at the end is just mean. I was glad to miss it this year!
I basically made the same mistake as you today…except that I listened to the weathermen who said it was going to be cloudy all day…so I postponed my run a bit this morning to sleep in. Of course it was sunny as heck, and I had no water and 1/2 pack Clif shot bloks. I quit after 14-something miles because I think I was getting dehydrated. It was ugly. Great job pushing through!
My phone decided it wanted to join me in my ice bath after my run this morning. Brilliance. It’s now sitting in a bowl of rice and I’m hoping for the best b/c of course I don’t have insurance on it and I’m not due for an upgrade until November. Sigh.
WAY to finish it off
–but yes, I’ve done that before. On Friday, actually, I had an early lunch, but KNEW I would be eating a late dinner, and still did not bring a snack with me. I pretty much ate my arm……SO hungry.
You did amazing considering today’s weather was like running on the sun.
Hey, you finished! There’s more to saying you finished when you didn’t want to, when it was HARD. We can do anything when it’s easy. It’s what we do when we’re challenged that matters. Way to get it, girl.
I didn’t drop my camera, but i did have my car key fall out of my running skirt pocket (that didn’t have a zipper!) INTO the toilet at the park where i was running. Thank goodness it didn’t have the automatic flush! (And thank goodness for soap and hand sanitizer, right!?)
you look super cute in the last pic! love the outfit…and what is in that salad?!!! i’m newly preggers and all that salty goodness looks absolutely divine
It looks like you use a lot of different types of gels. Any particular reason? I’ve run a couple of 1/2 marathons but looking to run a full. So, any advice on gels as I build up my mileage would be appreciated. Thanks!
i just have a bunch of different brands. i would try different kinds out before your race and see what you like, doesnt bother your stomach, etc. some people hate gels and can only do shotbloks or chews, some people only like certain brands so its good to do a “trial and error” in your training to figure out what works for you.
Thanks for the advice!
okay, i luv ur imagined phone convo with Jaymo. talk about a stellar support team.
My 18 mile refueling puts your salad to shame! Last week I think I had an omelet, and a full plate of pancakes.
I do crap like this all the time! So annoying! Good job getting the 18 done any way!
And as for the humidity, I hear you…TX is a swamp
I had to go to McDonald’s the other day because of you. The drinks here were only $.69 though. You’re getting ripped off. Ha ha. Nice job getting those miles done. I lost my sunglasses at the race yesterday and am sooooooo mad about it. Dumb.
Motorcycle wrecks = scary stuff… Good for you for pushing through! When you’ve done 15.5 without any fluids, what’s another 2.5?
No ugly mistakes for me lately. And for saying that, I probably will do something soon.
Semi-newbie runner but why do you wear running skirts? I guess I could have looked this up but I totes feel a bit lazy. TKS! 18 miles. Phew!
because why not? theyre comfortable, cute and functional, triple win in my book
Right. That’s what I am looking for…what’s the function? Granted I am quite a bit heftier in the thigh region than you but the rub potential makes me shudder. Do they have built in shorts? Do you ever feel like your womanly parts are not supported? Do womanly parts even need to be supported?!? So many questions! Ah the humanity!
yes they have built in briefs or some have shorts. so it feels like shorts with everything covered. this post is about all my skirts and different aspects of them: http://skinnyrunner.com/2012/02/07/the-skirt-post/
some people hate skirts and do have chafing issues similar to shorts and some people love them.
Awes thanks! Ps. I hope you know that in between your snark, self-deprecation, and celebricizing (sp?), you are super inspirational. I ran a measly 3.5 miles today but that’s really because I think about you running 18 and know that I’ll be able do that one day. Thank you for you!
OMG, that’s pretty awesome to be able to run 15 miles on a hot day without water (though I’m sure your body wouldn’t called it “awesome”). It’s also great that you got to finish the 18 miles!
Hey – could you sometime address running in the dark. Even though I live in a safe community and know it well, I feel uncomfortable running in the early morning or after the sun sets alone. Could you sometime do a post again about running alone and such. Especially since there have been people hurt. I know it’s been addressed but mention couldn’t hurt!
I had taken July off from running due to vacation and being sick and my first day back I thought I was well planned out to avoid rookie move day. It was one of the hotter days in Seattle (upper 80′s), grabbed a water bottle and decided my first “run/jog/walk” back in the swing of it would be a 5 miler to watch a bit of the airshow – go to starbucks grab a snack to recover and 5 mile back home. Just a gentle walk to get my legs moving plenty of hills no need to run as it was the first set of miles in a while.
That walk to Starbucks ended up being the savor of a melt down with a major migraine and had to “phone a friend” to come and get me. Can you say over did it, not hydrated enough and a bit of heat exhaustion all rolled into one. Was not a good scene and my friend was a dear to get me.
I blame the sun and my body for feeling so great after being sick – needless to say the next day wasn’t a “feel good day”.
Sweet salad pickles or dill salad pickles? I’m intrigued. I heart the pickles but have never put them on salads (which I eat at least once daily!).
Omg that sky is beautiful! I wish I was a morning person! Totally true about the drive through. I’ll happily drive right up to DD and get a peach Iced tea with Splenda! Plus we’re saving others the stench of our sweaty selves!
I am so bad about drinking water throughout the day. I really have to push myself to do it, even in the middle of the summer.
When I was training for my half… I did my longest training run without eating the bfast that I ate before every other long run. Epic fail! You live, you learn.
Bummer about your camera
Great job on the run. I live in So.Cal as well and it s been brutally hot. I had a bout with heat stroke some years ago amd now get physically I’ll when I get too hot. I only got in 3 miles yesterday before switching over to strength training due to the heat. Of course I was running at 11am at a gym with no A/C. Had my kiddos with me and let them sleep in. Big mistake.
Today is a new day. It’s 1hour teaching karate and then off to the gym to read my law books and ride the stationary bike.
Hiii! I have been reading your blog for about a year now love it! first time to comment. AFC was my first half ever and man was it tough with the heat. Of course today when I came back to CO it cooled down a little. But goal was to finish and I did.
Anyhoo bummer to hear you weren’t able to make it, was kinda hoping to spy you in the gigantic crowd ha! Thanks for all the tips, helped with my training. Next one should be easier hopefully… Once my chaffing, bruised toenails and body heals
You run 18+ miles and follow it up with a SALAD!? Woman, are you crazy? I’d be starving. Fainting. Probably dying on the floor. How do you do that? I stuff my face after 13, 15, 18 and 20 milers.