10 miles down!

by Stacy Hogle

It has been about a week and a half since I last blogged about my training, and I have been going strong. Last Saturday I finished a 9 mile run (week 4) and it went much better than I had expected. I set my alarm for 5:45am and made it to the trail at 6:30am. It was hard to roll out of bed, but I knew it was going to be hot and humid so it had to be an early run day. I ran at a place in Muskogee called Hatbox, it has a running trail that is a 3.2 mile loop. I went out 2.5 miles then back to the Tahoe to complete 5 miles. At my car I briefly stopped to grab some Gatorade and timed myself walking for 1 minute to let my stomach settle. After a minute I kicked it into high gear and went back out 2 miles and came back to total the 9 mile run. While I was running I saw a lot of cute little bunnies and some very interesting people. One fellow was running in a big t-shirt, jean shorts and had his two pit bulls with spikey collars following him NOT on leashes. I politely smiled and said hi while making sure my pepper spray was very visible. Weird...was he running for exercise? To a friends house? From the police maybe??? I never saw him again so I think he was taking a short cut. Luckily there were plenty of cute old men riding their bikes so it was fun to wave and say hi when we passed each other.



I ran the same trail this morning. It is cooler today so I got out there at 7:30am to allow myself to sleep in a bit. It's too bad my dogs Rebel and Jimmy didn't get the memo...they wanted to go outside around 6am. I need my beauty sleep!!! Remembering that last weeks 9 mile run wasn't too bad I thought the 10 miler would be a piece of cake. I was so wrong! When I got out to Hatbox and put on my Garmin Forerunner 205 (GPS running watch) and tried to turn it on it would not do anything. I have been running with my Garmin for almost a year and it has never missed a run or bike ride. I was then horrified to realize that my Ipod shuffle would not turn on either..what in the world is going on?? Luckily I had my Ipod Nano in the car and was able to use it for some running tunes. I felt so naked without my Garmin...I hope it just had a bad day and that it is not dead forever! I finished 5 miles and stopped at the car again to grab some Gatorade. I am trying to train myself to be able to stop at 5 miles to grab a quick drink then jump right back into running again, so far so good. I took a few quick drinks then headed back out to the trail, that is when I noticed my ponytail getting loose. I took out my ponytail holder and when I tried to put my hair back up it snapped in half. WTF!!! I wanted to quit and call it a day, but I was able to tie two ends into a knot and like they say on Project Runway "Make it work!" I was very discouraged but kept on moving and finished the 10 miles. I don't know my time since my Garmin died but at least I finished.



Now, if I can only get the right running shoes so my feet don't turn into a huge blister and fall off that would be great. I have been having trouble with my New Balance being too short so my toes have been blistering and I bought an Asic Kayano 14 last week that almost crippled me after 6 miles. Hopefully the Nikes I ordered will work. I ran in them during the Half Marathon and they treated me well. If you know anyone that likes Asics and wears a women's 9.5 let me know. I will sell them at a deeply discounted price! They only have 6 miles on them :)