Mama said knock you OUT

Did you see Harry Potter yet? If not, that means you probably haven't seen the preview for Happy Feet 2 where the tiny little fluffball (penguin) raps "Mama said knock you out" by LL Cool J. I'm sorry, but seeing a baby penguin rap "DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK" killed me. Amaze. Heart.

So anyway, it was applicable, because this weekend I had to knock out 10 miles. And after The Suck that was 9 miles last Sunday, I was really not looking forward to the run. Plus, I didn't have the best week of life last week, so I thought it would just be SO APPROPRIATE to cap it off with 10 miles of Suck. I was not anticipating a good two hour (approximately, with water breaks + pee breaks + chat breaks when I ran into multiple friends) run.

But you know what? It wasn't that bad. In fact, I'd venture to say that it went WELL.

Maybe it was my lowered expectations. Maybe it was some sick runner's high. But it was good! And that's good, right?

I drank a ton of water. It was probably hovering around 90* through the entire run, but with some great cloud cover + breezes thrown in there for relief. I refilled my water bottles on my fuel belt (10 oz each) 3 times - both bottles 2 times and then 1 bottle 1 last time. I ate an entire pack of Shot Bloks (6...they really help). I ran really slowly.

I have to do this thing while I'm running to keep myself going - I have to occupy my mind constantly, and it really helps me to break the run down into smaller chunks and say to myself "Ok, you just ran 2 miles, it's really just 5 segments of 2 miles," etc. Sadly, in my head, I started doing this yesterday at 0.25 miles. And I thought to myself "Ok, a quarter mile down...I only have to do...39 more." And then I burst out laughing. Which is better than crying and hyperventilating, yes? One foot in front of the other. Keep calm and carry on.

As an aside, this is what I'm facing in the next 10 days...hence why my running this week will be on a treadmill or at 6 am (trying again with Brigid to prove to her that I am not a total slug):

I got to see two kids on leashes in the Inner Harbor area...which was awesome. And lots of cute puppies. And I ran by a live concert at Pier 6 but I have no idea who was playing. I just saw lots of people sitting outside listening...and then ran into a couple of intoxicated friends which was pretty funny. I try to always think to myself "if you weren't running 10 miles right now, you wouldn't have gotten to see this."

I lost the ability to smile around 7.25 miles, and instead just sort of grimaced at other runners as we passed (I try to smile at fellow runners because I feel their pain, although yesterday I admit I was mostly thinking "I bet you aren't running 10 miles right now, why did I decide to do this?").

So happy day, it's a cutback week this week which means my long run this weekend is only 7 miles. Can we talk about how ridiculous it is that a run of "only 7 miles" makes me this excited? And I know that at some point, a run of "only 10 miles" will make me really happy.

Also, I just glanced up at my training schedule and this week I'm supposed to run a total of 18 miles over the course of the week (broken into 4 runs, but let's be real, we know I'll only do 3). Now, compare that with the fact that 7 weeks from now, my long run will be 18 miles. So, you know, running IN ONE CONTINUOUS SHOT the amount that I am running this entire week.

Whimper.

**Let it be known that I actually Google Image searched "Runner Fetal Position" and this is what it came back with, but since it's Dwight it's awesome and that's pretty much what my brain looks like when I think about all the miles I have ahead of me.