Wiped Out

There were so many choices for a title for this post: Trashed, Out of Gas, Uff Da!, Spent, Toast, ... you get the drift. But the lowdown is that I pretty much imploded on a 21.21 mile this afternoon/evening. Just nothing in reserve. I ran with Jim Mason ...

on a new trail which goes from County 9, just west of highway 42, north to Plainview.

It's brand new. It's paved, save for miles 2 and 3 which are hard-packed gravel. It very much reminded me of the Whistlestop and Rails to Trails marathon courses. Rural and scenic. I like being out in the wide open spaces. It will be prettier once things green up. I started running at 4:00 and got in 11.21 miles before meeting Jim at 5:30. Decent. There was a cyclist coming toward me at one point, and he yelled "Renee!" I wish I knew who it was. I swear I can't go ANYWHERE without seeing someone I know! I also ran down a gal on roller blades during that first out-and-back. Needlesstosay, she wasn't moving very fast. :-)

The wind was decidedly from the south, so when I got back to the car I grabbed my coat, filled my water bottle, and ditched my tunes before we headed out again. We went north, downhill and with the wind, for 5 miles before turning around. And that's when the wheels came off. Uphill, into the wind, with cramping legs and nothing in the tank. It was kinda ugly, pretty much like what happens in the final miles of my marathons. A few people have seen me "run", or actually slog through, some rather ugly miles and now Jim is a member of that little club. Bless his heart for staying with me. I told him to go on as we were barely moving. I was soooooo glad to see my car. My hands were cold and nonfunctional, I was absolutely starving, and I felt like my brain was in la-la land. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, as they say. This was an exercise in mental toughness if nothing else. Here's me at the "finish line"...

I got home and grabbed the first thing I could to eat. Leftover sqaush/chicken/pasta stuff, a hunk o'bread (cinnamon chip wheat from Great Harvest) and 1/2 a cookie. And then a really long, hot shower which was bliss. And now I'm bloggin; in my jammies. All good. :-)

OK. Back to the early AM. I drove down to the Y to lift and swim. It was Lisa P.'s birthday today, so I had a little something for her. Including cookies. Happy Birthday, princess!!

She gave a cookie to Eric. This is his quote, "These cookies were amazing. By the way, you should open your own shop."

Love that guy! :-) And then I asked Brian Erwin for a quote. Zip. Nadda. As Kevin said, "Brian said nothing of any value. Again" I just had to laugh.

As you can tell, lots and lots of teasing goes on at the Y. I'll have more from Brian in my next post (his Tom Petty/Bob Dylan/Springsteen/animain in agony imitation).

My post from yesterday was posted on the MDRA blog as "Renee Rambles Runs a PR", which was nice of Rocco/Michael or whoever posted it! I guess I will be the featured blog in MDRA's "Blognation" next week. Cool! I happened upon this post on MDRA: another manskirt!

Tuesday track work is going to be SW Rochester hills. Unless you choose to run at the track, which you certainly can do. Meet at the Soldier's Field memorial at 6 pm. Thursday's Byron Team R.E.D. will be running from Brothers in Rochester at 6 pm.

I'm having lunch with Betsy and Judy tomorrow, which I definitely look forward to. We haven't caught up much in the last couple of months. Kathryn said to wear old clothes to work. We're going to be doing some painting.

Well, I need to wrap this up and get to bed. And so it goes ...