July 3, 2011- Where’s My Water Bottle?

I am so excited!!! My husband and I were invited to a Tigers game on Friday with another couple, there I met Katie. Katie is an avid runner and has successfully completed several marathons. She has invited me to join her running group on Sunday mornings! YEA!!! I was so excited I was in tears.

So I set off today to do one more long run by myself, the goal is 12 miles today. We drove up to my parent’s house in Zeeland for the remainder of the holiday weekend. Out in the country there wasn’t much of a route choice since all roads make a square and everywhere you look there’s nothing but cornfields. I chose what I thought would be a shaded, 6 miles out and back.

Again, I made the mistake of leaving the house later than I should (with 2 little ones sleeping in is the perfect gift that my parents like to give me while at their house) so the entire run was HOT HOT HOT. I again drove the route and placed water bottles every 2 miles in the tall weeds along the country road.

What a disaster, the sun was not blocked by the miles of corn fields as I had hoped, but the slight breeze that I enjoyed in the beginning on an East/West road was soon blocked by corn when I turned on a North/South road. I got so bored with nothing but corn to look at and probably the worst thing about today was I lost some of my water bottles in the weeds. The lack of water was such a mental blow to me that I truly thought about giving up and just walking the rest of the way home. That is when I saw the snake, running was definitely better because I am certain he had several buddies out there.

Thankfully at mile 7 my husband drove by on his way back from getting coffee in town and I asked him to drive home and get some water for me, my hero. He then placed a few more along the route right on the shoulder so I couldn’t miss them or lose them in the weeds. I was so happy to finish that run that when I entered my parent’s driveway I threw both hands up in the air and cheered. It felt so good to finish. I think I will do that at the end of every run, celebrate.