Adventures in Running Parte Dos (Part 2)

Tuesday morning I went for a long run.  The goal was to run about 8 miles, so I woke up twenty minutes earlier than usual to give myself some extra time, if I felt that I was comfortable with this distance as I was running.

And even though I was outside for the period of time I had hoped, not all of that time was spent running.

Tuesday’s run included:

1)  Various smelly garbage bins making breathing difficult.  In one neighborhood it was garbage day!  Nothing beats the smell of fresh trash.

2)  Getting sprayed with a sprinkler while I was trying to carefully avoid puddles from another sprinkler.  So it wasn’t that bad.  I actually laughed a little bit, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as some might.

3)  Tripping about halfway into my run.  Apparently I am incapable of lifting my feet more than half an inch off the ground, because I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk.  I can only imagine what I looked like, flying into the air, landing on my hands and knee, and rolling over, finally stopping on my back.  Initially, it looked a lot worse than it did below (I took this picture when I got home from work, so it was more than 12 hours later).

With blood from my knee running down my leg (not an exaggeration), I figured I was already a little over three miles from my house so I might as well finish the run.  I actually stopped in a local diner to get a band-aid for my knee, but since I sweat an abnormal amount, it fell off literally five seconds after I put it on.

I finished out my run and unfortunately, with tripping, stopping for traffic, and stopping to get a band-aid, I wasn’t able to run the 8 miles I had planned.  I ended up doing 6.8 again.  On the bright side though, I ran an average of 30 seconds per mile faster than I did a week ago, so that made me happy.

I’m actually now looking into a half marathon that will be taking place in the beginning of August.  I am going to see how my training goes throughout July, but I am seriously considering it.  The only problem is that the race plus the cost of a hotel will put me around $300, which I think is a bit much…but I do think it would be an awesome first half marathon to do.

Pete got me some GUs to try out for the longer runs, so I’m kind of excited to start.  He also might come with me if I end up doing the half marathon (not to race, but to cheer me on)!

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!  Tomorrow is already Friday!