To Twelve and Back

Holy twelve miles.  It was a tough run.  I've ran further with fewer problems.  The weather was pretty warm, considering it's December 2.  It was about 55 when I left at 9:30 this morning.  I wore a short sleeve shirt and some capris.  I had my water bottle, two gels, and two mini Luna bars.  I thought I would try the Luna bars for something different, but brought the gels just in case, since I am use to taking them.

The Lighthouse we ran by.

 We started out east toward the lake.  There was a nice breeze going, so it was pretty comfortable.  Even when we turned north onto Main St.  we still had a breeze.  The first 4 miles went pretty quick.  We were running 9 minutes and walking 1 minute.  I had a little bit of tummy issues, but they seemed to go away pretty quick.  It was pretty cool that Becky planned the route to run out and past the lighthouse.  I had only biked out that far before.  There were also tons of people out running, walking, biking.  I always find that seeing others out helps my motivation.

It was really pretty out. Too bad my camera phone sucks.

I was starting to feel tired around the hour mark, but hoped the gel I took would help.  I was also starting to get really thirsty.  Around mile 9 or 10 I took another gel.  Just a couple of minutes later, I started to feel really nauseous.  I had to ask Becky to walk a minute.  I felt better after about 30 seconds and we started running again.

We stopped at the upcoming street light to stretch and give me a minute to recover.  I was so hot and by that point we had the wind at out backs.  Just standing there, leaning on the cold street light really made me feel better.  We were almost to a gas station that we had planned to stop at to get a beverage.  Becky had the foresight to bring cash.  It had crossed my mind, but I thought I would be fine.

We made it to the gas station and I chugged down some Powerade.  It was pretty much the best thing I could imagine tasting at that point.  We only had 1.4 miles left.  I could do this.

We walked a few minutes and agreed to just take it a bit slower and run the last mile to get it done.  It was pretty much all downhill anyway.
I almost wanted to walk about a gazillion times, but I kept going.  I was a few steps behind Becky, so I just focused on the ground and keeping pace with her.

Walking after that was hard.  We were both pretty sore, and I even offered to drive Becky home since we walked past my house and she would still have a ginormous hill to walk up plus stairs.  She said no though.  She's a tough chick!

I got in the house and stretched my legs out for a few minutes.  I couldn't stand my griminess though.  I decided to just hop into the shower and finish stretching afterwards.

My delicious Powerade that saved me the last few miles.

I was trying to think of why I was having so many stomach issues today when I remembered what I made for supper last night.

I ate a delicious supper of sauer kraut and mashed potatoes with some of my fake hot dogs thrown in.  I have been craving mashed potatoes since I had some on Thanksgiving.  Sauer kraut and mashed potatoes have been a favorite of mine since I was a kid.  

Yes, those are pickles on my salad.

My mom made it with one peeled onion with about 5-6 whole cloves pushed in it.  She would just put the onion in a large pot, empty a can of sauer kraut and a can of water, bring to a boil, and reduce and cover to cook for about half an hour.

I made some home made mashed potatoes too.  I love mashed potatoes!  Yum, yum, yum.