13....Bad Luck....

The last time I ran 13 miles was pre-knee surgery, pre-weight gain, pre-aging 2 more years......The last time I ran 13 miles there were balloons flying, bands playing, people cheering, national anthems being sung, big finish line, and a shiny medal at the end to prove you did it....you get the picture.

It all started with my hitting the snooze button 4 times this morning. I finally made myself get out of bed - actually it was Maddie and Hudson dancing around my bed, tags jingling, that finally made me give up and get up. Not really feeling the desire to go out for my long run, I did manage to make it to the lake and was prepared for a 12 mile run with a set of 5 hill repeats at about 1 mile before the finish line. I talked myself into it...."I can do that - I have done 11 - I can do that". Then they threw a new route at us - a route that seemed to be VERY uphill the whole way. OK, maybe there was a downhill portion every once in a while - the point is - it was way more hilly than we had run before. At our last water stop - I was thinking how much harder 12 miles had been today than 11 was - maybe it was the hills or something - then I heard the real reason why - we were running over 13 miles today. Those sneaky sons of guns had told us we were running 12 - and then actually sent us on the 13.5 mile route. When I heard this - the first thing that popped to my mind....13, bad luck. That made me smile and giggle a little about one of my favorite movies and I trudged on.

I deferred on the hill repeats today - I figured I did enough hills throughout the course. I know - I was probably cheating myself - but I was just happy to make it to the finish today. I made it - 13 miles - but it wasn't as fun as last time and there wasn't a shiny medal at the end - just some really sore calves and an ice bath to help ensure that I can walk tomorrow.