Week 9/10 (of 20) -- Half Way!!

(July 28th - Aug 10th, 2008)

As I look at my notes and my training calendar, I suddenly notice a pattern that may explain why the regular posting came to a halt at this point. Week 10 was the first (of what would be more than a few!) hard training runs.

Week 10 was 14 miles (more than a half marathon!) at Sheep Camp/Water Dog park in San Mateo. It was a trail run that was very steep in some parts and very uneven with rocks and tree branches in the way for most of the run. This run reminded me of why I dislike trail running (unless of course it's a wide level trail, like an abandoned railroad or something). In fact, I tripped on one of the aforementioned tree branches around mile 5, bruised my knee and scraped up my arm pretty badly (which only reaffirmed my dislike of trail running). A little while later, a woman I was running with got stung by a wasp, and we both ran like crazy to try to get out of the woods!

On top of all that, I remember it was pretty warm day, and the last 4 miles or so were completely exposed (i.e. no trees or shade) and it was getting to be near midday at that point. I remember it took me MUCH longer than I thought it should have to complete the 14 miles, and I was pretty discouraged and not at all happy that day.

Also, when I got to the finish, I found out that I wasn't the only one. Several of my teammates had tripped at some point or another and more than one got stung by the wasps. One of our mentors is a nurse and she spent quite a bit of time bandaging up the wounded at the end of that run, which was kind of funny to see.

Several of the returning mentors said that that particular route wasn't in the schedule last year and it was by far the hardest run they've ever done, so that made me feel a little better. But still, not a very happy run. :-(