I was so excited about completing the Cajunman Triathlon that I forgot to tell everyone that I did get my training miles in last week.  I ran 3 miles on Tuesday and Thursday.  I know it’s time to increase the mileage on my week night runs but it’s very difficult to find the extra time.

 Saturday, I had the pleasure of visiting with fellow Running on Faith teammates Tim, Christine and Louise.  It was great to see you guys and share a laugh or two!

 Sunday morning, our alarm goes off at 6 a.m. 30 minutes later, Paul and I are walking out the door headed on a 2 ½ to 3 hour road trip.  We have a packed ice chest, skin protectant, sunglasses, music, towels, a small amount of snacks and Paul has a cap on. GREAT!  It sounds like we’re headed to the beach or to a nice lake, right?  WRONG.  We’re walking to the end of our driveway to set up an unmanned aid station.  My goal was 13 miles and I was ready.  Of course, you know Paul, he wants to go 14 miles and “one up” me again.

 The run started out good, the weather was cool and the humidity was decent.  I started to feel tired around 7 miles and I knew I needed some fluids.  When I made it back to our driveway, it was the 8 mile mark and there was our makeshift unmanned aid station waiting on me.  I took a 3 minute break and while walking, I ate a bite of bagel, swallowed 2 electrolyte tablets and grabbed a melon flavored Gatorade for the rest of my “road trip”.  The next 2 miles felt great and I think I picked up the pace a little bit.  Things went sour around the 9 miles; my feet started to really hurt.  I was wearing new running shoes that only had about 10 miles on them and maybe that wasn’t a good idea.  I decided I should take a two minute walk break but it actually hurt more to walk so I picked up the pace and started running again.  By this time, I started to feel lonely too (I’d been running for almost two hours); Paul is always out there with me but we don’t see each other much. 

 I made it back to our driveway to complete the 13 miles in 2 hours and 30 minutes.  Considering the pain I was in, I was thrilled with the accomplishment.  Paul let me catch my breath before we started packing up our supplies.  Then he gently informed me that I miscalculated again and I only ran 12 ¾ miles, not 13!  I cannot describe how disappointing this was but I didn’t have it in me to turn around and run another ¼ mile to make up the difference.  I’ll just have to get it in next time.

 I’ll be traveling back and forth to Lafayette this week for work related business and I’m concerned that this will affect my week day training (the weather won’t help either).  I’ll post and let everyone know how that works out.

 This is Flash and I’m running on faith that I’ll reach my goal for donations.  I’m so close…please help me help the kids of St Jude!