Hills are only sometimes fun....

It's been over 8 months since I have run a 14 miler - boy did I make it tough on myself. If I had just ran the straight route - it would have been challenging, but not so darn painful. I ran over 5 miles of it in the NW hills of Portland... because I felt like "exploring." What the heck was I thinking?! Hills are only sometimes fun. Sure a 2 minute sprint - but 30 or 60 minutes of them are not. The houses were beautiful as this particular area is like the Beverly Hills of Portland. 2 bottles of water, a gatorade, a few sport jelly beans and a half of bagel later I finally hit my wall on mile 13. I literally had to walk...forced to walk. Thank goodness I bumped into the only friend I have here on my last mile and so the walk of pain was in short stride. Just letting her chat while walking her dog - definitely lifted my spirits. I think on future runs when I'm feeling depleted from a run that I'm going to call a friend and just let them talk to me. I really had to just laugh at myself. It's great though to tell people where you ran from and to and have them be really impressed. For me, I was happy to be back home in tact and in good spirits. The next day I was pleasantly surprised that my body is recovering better. Sure my hamstrings and quads were sore, but that was to be expected. My calves were really tight - but a good tight. I am happy I pushed myself seeing that I'll be running a 16 mile trail run on the race course this Saturday and I'm thinking that my last week exploration and hill repeats will start to pay off. I definitely need to incorporate more stretching - and get a massage at least once a month until the race. Today - I scheduled an easy 45 min. run - while tomorrow I'll have 6 mile trail run. Friday will be some core or yoga and Saturday will be a fun 4 hours! I've got 8 weeks and counting and am right on pace to have a great first 50K. My goal for that race is to finish and "walk the next day" to talk about it. That will be the payoff! FINISHING! Have a great day and thanks again for reading!