Whew!

I really, really wanted to run 15 miles this weekend! But it turned out to be tougher than I thought! I didn't do a very good job of setting myself up for success from the start. My diet and hydration wasn't the greatest the day before and I stayed up too late that night. Therefore, I got out there later than I wanted to and had to endure the punishment of the sun :) Yeah, I'm red-faced today!

On my recent long runs, I've been using the 2 lap strategy. Doing an out and back twice instead of going WAY out and coming WAY back. Yesterday I decided to do just one out and back since I was definitely tiring of the scenery in the current route. First, I just have to say that the destruction to the trees on the lakefront path was incredible! I was driving on Lakeshore Drive during the storm so I saw it was pretty bad, but running passed it all firsthand was a different story!

All was going fairly well until I hit the North Ave to Ohio St stretch. For those of you who don't know, you go from running on this nice tree-lined dirt/sand path to running two long straight aways out in the open, cement, and lots of tourists everywhere getting in your way. It totals a mile and a half before you get back to some sort of non-commercial environment again. Going out was the worst...I felt like I'd been running forever, but the end looked no closer! I hate straight aways! Once I finally got through that part, I started to run into the Chicago Triathlon that was going on. After manuvering through people for a half mile, I gave up and turned around...I was only a half mile short so I figured I'd make it up on the way back. I was definitely getting tired and the sun was beating down on me.

The run back was not as bad mentally because, well, I was running towards being done :) But physically, it was very tough. I took some shot blocs, but they didn't seem to help much. Right before I got to 13 miles, I stopped at a water fountain and had to literally argue with myself to continue. I walked in small circles for at least a minute before I had convinced myself to keep going...at least until the next water fountain. And I did. Then again, I walked for about a minute before convincing myself to get to the 14 mile marker. And I did. And then I convinced myself to keep going...until I got to the slightest of inclines...and then I threw in the towel! So, I made it 14 miles and some change!

I don't want to downplay this run because this is now the farthest distance I've ever run. It was definitely an accomplishment! But I need to be going farther, easier. I need to make this happen. I've got to commit to this...and I don't know why I say this every week and haven't made it happen yet! This is crunch time!