Slacker

I totally forgot to write about the 16 excruciating miles we ran as a team on Saturday.  Dan showed up in his black tights, looking good, but queer at the same time.  It was warm enough that I could keep my ninja suit on the shelf and just wear my mid layer, which is white.  It doubles as my snow ninja gear if I ever need it to.  I don't really remember what Dave was wearing, but I'm sure basketball shorts were part of it.

We decided to run a four mile loop 4 times.  We parked Dave's truck at Sports Authority and threw some water bottles in the back, so we could hydrate every two miles or so.  My lap times were something like, 40:10, 42:30, 45:30, and 48:00.  I think Dave was about the same, except he killed the final 4 miles in 41 minutes.  Dan hurt his knee, so he stopped after 12 miles.  As a result, he is downgraded to questionable.  Two days later, Dave's feet still hurt, so he is also downgraded.  I'm pretty sure dogging the last 4 miles saved my body from any serious injury...well, that and the fact that ninjas don't get hurt.

16 miles is a long way to run.  I realize that everyone already knows this, but until you experience it, I'm not sure you can appreciate how long it really is.  The worst part though...we still need to go 10 more to finish the race.  It's still seems impossible, which is why this is such a worthy goal.  Dave told me about a brother in law that ran a marathon down in Jamaica.  Every time he was about to quit, a little boy would come out of the crowd and run with him for a while.  I'm pretty sure I'll need more that to finish the race.

Last night I ran a quick 5 miles to finish the recovery process from Saturday.  My watch wasn't charged, so I had to run a familiar 5 mile course and just watch my time on my phone.  My left knee hurts a little, but mostly I feel pretty good.  I hate taking a 5-hour energy that late in the day, so I did the run without any caffeine.  I can tell a huge difference in my breathing and energy levels, but I was able to fall asleep last night, so it was a pretty good tradeoff.  This Saturday is Christmas, so I need to figure out when to run 17 miles.  I'll probably skip do 3 or so miles or CrossFit tomorrow and then run the 17 on Friday.