Some background: I'm down to 8 toenails, and my broken rib still hurts. Yesterday was the 9-week mark since I broke it, and generally I don't notice it, but it still hurts to lift things with my left arm, still hurts (excruciatingly, actually) to lie flat on my back, and you wouldn't believe how much it still hurts to sneeze! I read that although the bone should be healed by the 8-week mark, there can be residual pain for up to 5 months after the bone has healed. Have to say, I probably didn't help things along by running a half and full back-to-back at the 5-week mark. Oops. I can't even say live and learn to that one...I would do it again in a heartbeat! Generally, I will take a couple of ibuprofin for rib pain, but I've been off it completely for about 3.5 weeks now, and I haven't felt the need to medicate since just after the races last month. I was also prescribed an inhaler for difficulty breathing associated with the break, but haven't taken the inhaler in about 3 weeks either, since I a) haven't been having trouble breathing, and b) haven't really been running so much.
So today I set out for what I expect to be an hour (or less) run, 4-5 miles. It's 70, sunny, beautiful day. Except I had only eaten a bowl of frosted mini wheats and a couple handfuls of sunflower seeds...and a few handfuls of Lindt snowman truffles (YUM, my favorite!). Thankfully (you'll hear why), I dressed in a fuschia top. I also took a water bottle with me (can't find my fuel belt, it's still packed somewhere...)
My main goal today was to figure out the RTP trail system. I had looked online yesterday, and it seemed easy enough. Except there is crazy construction going on around here, which doesn't bode too well for existing trails. Well, I found the trail system. My thought was to run down Davis, to 54, Alexander, and then Hopson--making a neat loop in my neighborhood. I made it to 54, and then to Alexander, and then Hopson. And then 20 minutes of Cisco campus, followed by trails that were either mud-covered, torn up (really, they had huge chunks of asphalt on top of the trail), or non-existent (I had to do a tick check when I got home!!!) Turns out my nice loop is about 8.6 miles of loop, and I took a wrong turn somewhere in there. When I finished, I was hurting everywhere--hips, quads, hams, and TOES. My poor toes will never forgive me for taking up this hobby, unfortunately :( The toes that don't even have nails got blisters today...I really feel bad for doing that to them, but ah, life goes on. I just know that I may never be able to get another pedicure again...ever! (I do remember the first time I went for one after losing a nail...I can't ever forget the look I got from the pedicurist! It was a look of questioning, then realization, then disgust. Poor lady!)
That all said, now that it's been a few hours since I got back, I've had some time to think about other things related to the run.
First, North Carolina is so much more rural than I'm used to. I started running in San Diego in 2003, and I lived downtown. So when I'd run, I'd run in Balboa Park and around the streets of downtown. Very urban, cars and palm trees everywhere--I loved it! Even when I started biking on Fiesta Island, you still saw the city and the homes all around, even though there were none on the island itself. Then I moved to Atlanta. The bulk of my long runs were on the Silver Comet trail, which is very suburban, but it's lined with houses and subdivisions on the stretch that I ran over the years, and there were always tons of runners or bikers out with me. Now we live in North Carolina, where I ran along a 4-lane road and saw no cars, no stoplights, no houses, a few businesses (but very far between) and no other people. I was shocked at the amount of green that I saw today--fields of tall grass, what appeared to be forest areas...all very new as of late. The bulk of the run was along low-populated areas where I saw nobody else. The entire run, I saw NO other runners...hard to imagine, even after it happened!
Second, North Carolina has CRAZY killer hills! I thought the hills in Huntley Hills were challenging, these are like Mount Kilimanjaro in comparison! Not one place on my run was flat--I was either going up a sharp hill, up a gradual, long incline (worse than short steep ones!) or down a sharp hill. I have a feeling this loop will make up the bulk of my training for the Boogie Marathon in June. That course will be the first race I do that has "rolling" hills with a net even finish--meaning you go up and down, for the duration. Given that it's a 4-loop course, it should be pretty comparable to what I was running today. But, I'll need to pull elevation charts in the weeks to come, just to be sure. Another good thing about the hills is that they will help me build strength--leg and core--since I don't have a gym membership. (I also can't do true core yet b/c of the rib issue...). I sure will have great-looking legs when I get the hang of these hills!
Finally, Looking back, it was a great run. I was utterly exhausted by the hills, walked a good chunk of the last half, and was petrified that I was lost for the last hour of it, but overall, it was great to get outside and just run. When I first went outside and started running, I actually thought to myself, "There is nothing better than this"--clear blue sky, warm weather, light breeze, and me and the road. It's been a long time since I had a run that started so well (thanks to injury (insert mad smiley here) ).
I can't wait for Eric to get up here for good too. He has been working really really ridiculously hard on his defense presentation, his papers, and work generally in the past few weeks. We'll both be glowingly happy once his defense is over on Wednesday afternoon, and I'll be happier still once he can move to North Carolina to be with the cats and me. He's having a good time living with Michael and Connor, especially given the copious amount of wii time he gets to have...but nothing is as good as being home with the wife and kids! :)
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