August 10th, 2010 – 10.03 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

Tonight’s run really was great. It was slow and incredibly sloppy at times, but it was 10 miles. I survived it, so that makes it a great one.

When I set out, I knew it was going to be a long one, so the only goal I had was to finish it. This was the first 10-miler I’ve done in many weeks. Maybe when I’ve been at it longer, a 10 mile run will be the standard, but for now, it’s a MAJOR undertaking for me.

I took Sarah and I did it in my usual 4 and 1. I knew I would lose my daylight before I was done, but I just wore my high visibility cap. I put Sarah in her vest. I highly recommend both, by the way.

I started my music and set my RunKeeper to start. If you are fortunate enough to own an iPhone, but not fortunate enough to own a Garmin, I highly recommend Runkeeper to track your miles, speed and calories burned. The basic package is free online.




It shows your progress as you train and maps your route. You can link directly to Facebook or Twitter, if you like. I like that you can post your stats while keeping the map of your route private. You can pause it without ending your session and you can listen to your music, receive messaging and even answer a phone call without leaving the program. But anyone who knows me well knows not to call me during church or a run.

The first 4 miles were fine. They went off without a hitch, other than Sarah bolting after the occasional dog. Fortunately, I had her leash locked so when she bolted after a dog barking out the window of a passing car, she didn’t get herself killed. Stupid dog. What if I didn’t have a firm enough grasp on her handle? She’d be gone and I’d probably get sued!

When I got to the 4.5 mile point, I knew I was getting to the turn around point and I needed to add another .5 mile to the run. Otherwise, I would be shy of 10 miles and I was determined to get a full 10 miles in tonight. So I turned into a park I’d been meaning to check out since the first time I did the 10 mile loop. It has a nice lake and a golf course. So I looked it up online to see if it was a private park and it turned out it isn't. This was the perfect time to check it out. I was dead tired but I only had to run a quarter of a mile in and back if I wanted to get the miles in. Well, that was a mistake!!! I thought there might be dogs that I might have to contend with, but the geese were quite literally, a whole different animal…… And geese have SEVERE attitude problems! Really…. If you’re a dog, you don’t want to cross a goose. She will kick your little canine ass! So I had to get her outta there quick.

At mile 6, I had my first Shot Blok. Black Cherry. Not bad.




Under normal circumstances, I would recommend them. They did the job and gave me that extra charge I needed to keep going, but they are clearly only meant to be taken once per workout. However, I took one at miles 6, 7 & 8. More on that later.

At mile 7 I lost just about all of my daylight but that’s OK because Sarah and I don’t mind running in the dark. I only have 3 miles left and I’m feeling OK. My knees aren’t killing me. I know I’m going to hear from my AT later on, but that’s par for that course and nothing to seriously worry about. I’m feeling good but by mile 8, I really am ready for this run to be over and so is Sarah. She stopped to take a dump on the sidewalk, so now I’m running with a little blue baggy full of poop! Just before that, I ran into two ladies who were out for an evening stroll. One of them had the 3-Day Avon Walk for Breast Cancer shirt on.




I stopped to ask her if she’d actually done it and they chatted for a few minutes about how great that experience was and to compliment me on how pretty Sarah is. I didn’t stop my RunKeeper, so my time is off, but that’s OK, it had already turned into a bit of a sloppy run at that point. I was very sure to tell her that I admired her greatly for doing it. She said she’d done it 3 times. Wow!

The last 2 miles really were great. This portion is very well known to me and Sarah and we just sailed right through it. I was tired, make no mistake, but I was happy to be there.

My body had been beaten and I was hoping I wouldn’t regret it later but at the moment, I was feeling pretty good. The 3 Shot Bloks I took were fighting to get out of my system and they were NOT happy about being entrapped in my colon! I was cramping and needed to get to a bathroom quick!!! It was getting worse and worse.

I was on the home stretch, and right when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, I caught sight of my house and Chris was standing in the driveway waiting for me. I almost cried. All pain and discomfort vanished. All I could think about for the moment was that I am loved by the best of good men.

I unhooked Sarah’s leash and said, “Go!” she ran home so I was able to do the last .10 of a mile completely unhindered. Doesn’t sound like much but that was great! She’d been pulling on me for the whole run and it was nice to let her go.

When I finally got inside the house, I was ready to pass out, but I couldn’t. Jordan stayed up to get Mommy prayers and Chris said he was worried about me because I’d been gone so long. So we prayed and thanked God for bringing me back home safely.

While I was trying to decide if it was more important to shower or have a recovery meal, I discovered that I had worn holes in the shorts I was running in! Not anything gross or embarrassing, but worn, none the less. Granted, these shorts were years old, but there was no sign of holes when I put ‘em on! That’s never happened to me before. No more cheap running shorts for me!



Now the Shot Bloks are making me so noxious….. Somebody grab a bucket!