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| Spartan run |
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| mile 18ish at starved rock |
After getting engaged on October 22nd (exiting :)) in Geneva Illinois, planned on a easy week of only 10 miles of course - then getting up to run 6 miles on the Lake Geneva trail - which was a LOT more fun then the 22 mile Euro burn out marathon, that's for sure, it's amazing how different I feel now. The last 3 big runs started with a 18, That was the longest run I have ever done BEFORE work. We started out on a 10 mile loop (Mike, Judah and I) circled back to Mike's house to pick up his wife Angela, we then ran a 8 mile rout on my side of town.... It went fairly smoothly, by the end I was tired, but not that bad. We saw 5 bras on the road though, that was strange. The reason we did this run on a friday was because the following day was the Super spartan.
The Super Spartan is a 8+ mile run through obstacles and mud and fun stuff like that. It was chili out when our group started at 10:30am. It was a few miles of mainly running to start with, which was nice to warm up. We of course eventually got to some crazy muddy and kind of dangerous obstacles. Such as belly crowling through slimy mud under barbed wire, climbing crazy steep hils, going down really steep hills into mud pits, jumping, or getting a boost over 8' walls, going under and over and under and over stuff. Crawling through a really long pipe line thing with holes dug here and their where you can't see them. Long set of monkey bars, balancing beams, posts in a mud pit you had to jump from one to the other (and they were not exactly too close together) I big rope thing to climb, a big tower to climb over, a 30' tall rope to climb up that you had to swim to....dragging a cement block over a bunch of steep hills.... Stuff like that. And if you failed a obstacle you had to do 30 burpys.... It was really fun, but I was pretty tired and sore after. Not as bad as last year though, it really didn't feel like I had ran 8+ miles. The bad part of the race was waiting in line for people to do the obstacles. I HATE waiting in line, and people were "butt scooting" over the beams you were supposed to walk and balance over, so it took forever and I was SOOOO cold!!! but it was fun. A good time was had by all. The next day I think we ran a few miles, I don't remember though. I got a lot of bruises out of that race.
The next week was a 20 - half of the group was out running a half marathon in Geneva, so It was Debi, Judah & I. We did a new rout I put together, from hoover, to millington, to yorkville again and back to hoover. It was actually a really good run and we all enjoyed the rout. The next day we ran 10 miles - that was tough. We saw more bras. What is the deal with bras in the road? I don't get it. Not even lonely country roads....
Just this week we went on a 22 mile adventure. Judah could not attend sadly he had drill... So it was Mike, Debi, Matt & I. We started at starved rock, ran into Utica to the I&M canal trail, all the way to ottawa, back on the road, and the last 3 miles on the trail. With 2 miles left Debi and I were running on the top of the rocks, around Lovers Leap when a CRAZY storm hit. Thunder louder than I have ever heard and really bright crackly lightning.... Then we got hailed on and rained on all all the way back to the car. Strangely after the lightning and thunder I completely forgot about my legs hurting, so that was a positive. I was pretty tired after that run, we had our post run beer of Shock top Pumpkin (really good beer btw) and also went to a pub in Ottawa for a drink and lunch.
The next day we ran 10 miles, it was kinda tough as expected... but knowing that after that it was pretty much down hill made it much eayser. Now - this weekend we only ran 11 miles, and for the sunday 5 mile run I decided to bike instead - I'm just kind of sick of running right now. Its weird that I am sore after a 11 mile run, but I am. I'm just tired now. I 'm fairly certain I will bounce back by the time the marathon comes around - probably sooner than that, but I can defiantly tell I am at the end of a big training block. I'm ready for this taper - I need it.
One thing I have been thinking about again - the same thing I usually think of when i'm sick if running - is WHY. Why do I do this to myself. It hurts. It's hard. It's exhausting, it's a HUGE time commitment... but this whole year had really been something else. It had not been easy, those bad runs that I had, getting hurt, being tired, early nights so I can get up at the crack of dawn, or before dawn. It's not easy - it's actually REALLY REALLY hard. So why? I do it because that's what I do - but I really enjoy the benefits too -- Being fit, strong and feeling more confidant in the other areas of my life. like "I just ran 2 marathons and 2 50k's in one year - I can get up for work, I can clean the house, I can do all the things I need to do and keep trying with all my goals, because if i'm committed to something, I can fail or I can succeed - however if I never try I can only fail. It's also the companionship of course of my runner friends, the challenge... and when I talk abut running, and people ask "what are you running from" I'm running from high blood pressure, from stress, from American Obesity... i'm running FORM all those things, but i'm also running TO health, pizza, wine & happiness. I do not want to have tones of health problems when i'm old, I do not want to look back and think of all the things I could have done to prevent any illness I develop - I want to know that I am doing everything I can do NOW to be healthy - so that in the future I do not suffer - or if I do, I know that there was nothing I could have done differently to prevent it. I have heard the saying that working out adds time to you life - but the extra time you get - you just spend working out anyway. Well, that may be true - but I will live a heather life - I will feel better - and experience more, see more & know more people than I would If I did not run.
SO even though I get tired of running - I know I will keep running - because it is a part of my life. I just have to know when to take a break to let myself rest, and when to keep with the schedule. It's not that I think I will ALWAYS run marathons and 50ks or more than that - I maybe just start doing half marathons for a year, or only stay in shape to run 7 or 8 miles (Any less than that just sounds crazy) but I will always run because it makes me feel good - and it will make me live longer and more healthy & because if I was not running what would I be doing? Staying up late to watch movies? Staying up late to play video games? Reading books about someone elses take on life? Spending money and drinking in a bar? I'd rather just go to bed early & go out and experience life myself.
Here we go to Marathon #4!!
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| mile 20ish at starved rock |
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| Spartan run |
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