Sometimes half the battle is getting there. I left at my normal time to head to the lakefront for the group run. As I was about to enter the lakefront at Foster Avenue, the gates were down barring the entrance so I turned around and headed down Marine Drive to enter at Lawrence Avenue. Again the entrance was closed. I continued down Marine Drive and entered at Wilson Avenue. There were barricades at the entrance also but there was an opening where a one car could get through so I took that route. When I came to our gathering spot by the bridge, all the usual parking spots were gone since Marathon training began this week. This group starts at 6:30 a.m. while we start at 7:00 a.m. I kept driving down the road and finally found some parking and then started to walk to the running site in the humid weather conditions. I haven’t even run yet and I am worn down just getting there.
Since I saw some portable toilets setup, I took advantage of using one. When I stepped out of the toilet it felt like someone turned on the air conditioning. For the few minutes I was taking care of business, the temperature dropped considerably. It was almost at the point where you wanted to but on a jacket. As I was close to the site, I saw large groups of runners heading out for their run. Saturday mornings are not going to be the same for the rest of the training. At least now I know what to expect.
As we were heading out for our run, there were so many groups of runners out there. It is really amazing to me how many people are out there running. Today’s run was 6 miles. I guess because of the Marathon training beginning, there was an official water and Gatorade station set up by Fleet Feet. Our group stopped there after the turnaround of our run. Since training runs are the time to experiment, at the water station I had some GU. This stuff comes in a flat packet with a top that rips off and then you squeeze the GU packet and suck out the GU to eat. The flavor that I had was Vanilla Bean with caffeine. I have to say that it tasted really good (thanks Laura). I rather have some GU and water than drink Gatorade which I don’t like at all.
The weather shift made it a more comfortable run but it still could have been less humid for me. Even though it looked like it would rain at anytime, the rain held off for our run. On the run back to the site, I saw Denise (from my run/walk group on Thursdays) along the path. That was certainly a surprise. After running our six miles, none of us ran any extra miles. The group did talk afterwards about running 12 miles on July 10th. Many of us felt that if we actually ran that distance we would feel more confident running the 13.1 miles for the race.
When I got home from the run, I had to go and get my driver’s license renewed and take a vision test. I hate taking any kind of tests. Usually when I get home I just shower and quickly dry my hair and really don’t do much else to my appearance. Since I was going to have my picture taken for my driver’s license, I had to put on makeup and do my hair so I wouldn’t look like a total slumpadinka. Luckily I passed the vision test and took a decent picture.
The rest of the day is being spent working on getting the house ready for pictures. This has been such a project. Hopefully it will be all done by tomorrow.
I don't need to lose 50 lbs and thank God because I can't ever imagine running, let alone running 13 miles. You are stronger willed than I ever could be. Good luck girl I hope you get there!
Posted by: loohire | 06/14/2010 at 06:26 AM