Eight miles and the blisters to prove it....
Saturday came too early, it's been an eventful week and I did absolutely no training at all. When I arrived at the park, I checked in with our coach. I had to let her know what was going on with the neck business, and told her I wasn't sure I could manage the full 8 miles today. She was cool, if I needed to stop early it would be fine.
We took off about 7:15, I decided to go a bit slower than I normally walk. It wasn't bad, after 15 minutes we stopped and stretched. When I was ready to go on, Gerry joined me. It was nice having someone to talk to, it makes the time pass! We got to the turnaround point, ate a little bit and grabbed some water. I was carrying Cliff Shot Electrolytes in my bottle, so having plain water available was nice. Washed down the half of a cherry pie Lara bar nicely.
Another team mate told us about hiking up to the Stanford dish on her own......in 104 degree heat. :eek: She had to have a ranger bring her back down. I have no idea what made her think going up to the dish at that time of day was a good idea.
Gerry and I headed out again, talked about our families. Her hubby was an avid cyclist, he had a heart attack four years ago and died. She still has his bikes and bike parts. Some have been given to family members, which I thought was a nice way to remember their uncle, brother or dad.
We made it back to the park, but still had two miles to go. I debated with myself, then decided I didn't want to abandon Gerry. Off we went after more water (it was warming up fast!) We made it out 1 mile, and spotted a Baja Fresh. We were sorely tempted to stop in for tacos, but decided we were not presentable to the general public. (stank to high heaven by that time, I'm sure) We turned around and headed back to the park, in much more full sun than I like. Greeted with cheers and high fives from our coach.
I'm so glad I pushed myself for the full days training, it tells me that I'll be able to push myself during the marathon too.
Casualties --- my right foot. :( One blister on my heel, near the bottom, and on on the bottom of my foot near the big toe. I dug out my blister stuff from my hiking days, I shall survive.
Another fund raising benchmark made -- I now have a TNT hat and water bottle. :cool:
Sunscreen props - I found jobob's favorite, Ocean Potion. I bought a small jar of the 45spf invisible zinc oxide cream for faces. Good stuff!
