Eighteen - Take 2 - And A Whole Lot More...

So, I need to go back a few days here…

Thursday –  my first day of vacation – it was “Pamper Me Day” and it was delightful!!! I got my hair did at Taylor Made Hair Design – LOVE THIS GIRL!!!  Fingers and toes got special treatment at NJ Top Nails – this place was new to me. FANTASTIC service and affordable too! Coffee with my one and only sister Cindy-Lou-Who! Finally dinner with one of my BFF’s!! If I won the lottery – this would be my day, every day!!!

However I must back up just a wee bit more… See I may have celebrated the oncoming vacation a little much on Wednesday night… So imagine my surprise to wake after only 4 hours sleep and see FIVE texts, FIVE Facebook notifications, and ONE missed call on my phone. I’m groggy and hungover. I decide to start with the texts. Most recent first:

“:) OMG!! :) OMG!!”

Initial thought: WTH is she doing up at this hour!!

Anyway… Previous text…

“We got into Nike!!!!!!”

It took 3 hours for that text to set in! See, Nike is a Women’s half marathon that is SO coveted that they do a lottery to determine who gets to run it. Only 25,000 can run it each year. ONLY! I’m dying to know how many people register! Anywho – my favorite running buddy has been trying to get in for 5 years and finally, WE’RE IN!!! Let me share with you their email …

It goes on and on to tell me how they’re going to charge my account for this torture because I’m crazy, but that’s the gist of it  :)

Oh, perhaps I should mention that our medal comes in this…

But anyway…

Skipping ahead to Friday! Oh I relaxed! I window shopped! It was another delightful day!

Until…

I’m out on my run. Five miles. It’s doable. I’m kinda struggling. Tummy is a bit upset. I continue on.

4.something miles  - I meet the pavement!

I rolled my ankle on a pinecone?? Both knees got a wee bit of road rash. Garmin took the hit for my left hand. My right, however, HURTS!! Holding the cylindrical water bottle caused this hand to roll back into a very unnatural position. I pick myself up. Stop my Garmin. (Priorities). My hand throbs. Well hell. I have less than a mile to go. I wiggle my fingers as I run and determine I will survive. Oh my does it hurt. A little Neosporin and some ice and a good night’s sleep and I’m almost good as new.

Thank-freakin-goodness!!!

So, today.

Today was take-2 of my 18 mile run. There are no words. There is no comparison. First of all it was 41 when I left my house – 20 degrees cooler than last week!!!

We decided to run in Spokane since next week is Bloomsday, which is 7.46 miles and we need to complete 20. We figured we should map out a route.

Oh the nerves.

New territory? No house to stop in mid-point? We have to remember EVERYTHING we could possibly need?

I didn’t map out the course. Some friends did. I trusted them. I was given an index card with directions. Ooooh – like a scavenger hunt!! Get it right, you get a ride home. Get it wrong… um, it’s a long walk from North Spokane to my house!!! I best get it right!!

I take off… half a mile in… hill. BIG hill. You know, when someone works the streets of Spokane, you think they could mention there is a big ass hill on the route they suggested for you!!! Remind me to thank said friend next time I see him!!! (Editor’s note: apparently friend told us, we were just a little too excited to listen…)

I run and I walk and I run and I walk. I find a penny here and a penny there…  and then…

These kids tried to mug me for my pennies!!!

Three times!!!

I began to wonder what I would do if I found a penny in their claimed area. Would I give it to them? I mean, I’m all for helping kids. But really, they aren’t running 18 miles today. These pennies are mine!! Then I laughed. I was reminded of an outing in Seattle where my running buddy picked up 2 pennies, from the sidewalk, a few feet from a panhandling bum. Some stranger told her to give the bum the pennies. She might have responded that if he wanted them, he would have gotten off his tush and gotten them himself! Seriously, he almost could have reached him from his perch! I didn’t find any pennies here though. Dilemma resolved.

Somewhere I stopped my Garmin and forgot to restart it. UGH!! When you are running 18,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles, every 1/10^th on that Garmin counts! I got back to the car at 8.20. My running buddy had already been to the car and clocked it at 9.38. Crap! I lost over a mile!!!

I continued on. I’m slow. I’m blessed with many hours to think about many things. How I run. How my foot hits the pavement. How I should eat better. What color I should paint my bedroom. What to have for dinner. How we should do our community outreach for S2S this year. And on. And on. And on.

I get a text from my running buddy… she’s still looking for “Maxwell St.”… this really is a scavenger hunt! 

How fun!

Part of the fun of this course was we got to run DOWN Doomsday hill! I’ve never noticed how beautiful it is while crawling up it before…

Less than two miles to go and I’m dragging. I decide to walk along this trail we’ve seen runners on all day. Totally worth it for the view…

I finished up with a decent time. For me anyway. I felt SOOOO much better than last week!

I’m still scared to death of 26.2 miles.

It’s SO far!

Here are my winnings for today…

Note the index card in the back! I made sure not to lose it! I did NOT want to walk home!!!

Thank you for hanging out through this novel!

I revel in the support I get from my readers!!!