Now there's a run that will knock you right off your unicorn...

Isn't Stuart lovely.

Ouch. Well the glory of my 9 miler, finishing my last mile at an 8:20 pace, feeling great and loving the 61 degree temps came to a screeching halt yesterday at 5:15am as I walked out the door for my run and I felt the armpit of humidity I was about to swim through. In fact yesterday's 5 miler knocked me right off my unicorn and brought me back to reality... quick. I'm still in terrible shape. That's the funny thing about runners, despite the number of terrible runs we have, the high that we get from the good ones tend to cloud our minds and judgement about how we actually feel about running. We seem to remember that good feeling we had... that ONE time when we ran and we could have gone forever. We tend to block out the runs where we almost pooped our pants. Come on now, if you're a runner admit it, you've come close. We've all been there. If you're not a runner, I hate to break it to you, it can happen to anyone when they least expect it. That's why I follow one rule in running never to be broken (at least by me), if you think your gonna poop your pants, just stop right where you are. Sit on a curb if you have to, run into the woods if it's a must, find a port-a-potty on route and run like hell to get there, but don't sh*t your pants. Stopping is always the right thing to do. ALWAYS. No questions asked. I've witnessed 3 runners (that I did not know) crap themselves in races. One even passed me at mile 24 of a marathon and I thought, "I can't believe this old lady is passing me"! Then she got in front of me and I saw the blowout that had occurred (she did not stop... not even to clean herself off) and thought, "That lady wants this victory way more than I do!"  and very disgustedly I let her continue on her way and beat my pants off, my CLEAN pants off.

So the good news is, I didn't break my rule yesterday. I completed my 5 miles through Brook Valley with an 8:50 pace and my shorts stayed clean... sweaty, but clean. The bad news is, I'm still trying to catch back up to my unicorn. It was a pretty severe fall and he ran off much too quickly for me to keep up. This morning when I got to my alarm at 4:30am, I checked the weather and it was 78 degrees and 96% humidity. Without my unicorn, I went back to bed and couldn't stomach the thought of doing it all over. I'm crossing my fingers it rains tonight with no thunder so I can go for a rainy run and maybe find my unicorn in the neighborhood somewhere.

In the meantime, if you see my unicorn Stuart, please tell him that I miss him.

Day 10 of training

Total Training Mileage = 22 miles
Total Fundraising = $620

Donors: Megan Hardee, Kay Evans, Shelley Leicht, Chad Smith, Daniel Rankin, Beth & Abbey Gallup, Jean Gaskins, Lisa Price, Leslie Bunch and a super duper anonymous donor I've never met in person, but she's pretty spectacular in every way! THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE DONATED!