Running Hangover

1/23/09

5:30am (that means it is still dark out) I awoke with a new found responsibility. While this new task wasn't really hard to do, I had to get up at 5:30 am to do it, (that also means I woke up 2.5 hours before I'm used to. Let me stop complaining. After taking care of this early a.m. BI, a nice egg sandwich, hash brown and some OJ I told myself "Self, it is time to run". After a unusually long warm up(while watching Dark Knight, "WHY SO SERIOUS"?). I headed out to put some miles behind me. I started slow, like I usually do, but didn't have a midway point in my head. I thought for a minute then came up with one; Rte 30. I was on Rte 40 and knew that Rte 30 wasn't far, but it wasn't close either. I passed the Mall, A.C. race track, the expressway, sports fields, golf course, train tracks, and a WaWa(cursed when I remembered they don't have courtesy cups). Wawa is on Rte 30 so it was time to turn around. I immediately thought I have long way to go. I headed up the bridge that goes over the tracks and my body remembered that it didn't get as much sleep as it likes.

I slowed my pace and thought this is gonna suck! It did annnd it didn't. While my pace was slower and I labored (shout out to all the women who have had kids, naturally) through every step, felt every blade of grass, piece of gravel, all angles of the round, gravity seemed to be pulling and pushing back and down. I was struggling at the golf course, it became a little worse at the sports fields, was feeling good when I saw the turn in the road for the race track, soon realized I was only at the expressway (" How about a lil magic, I'm going to make this pencil disappear"). The only thing that kept me moving was going through lines from Dark Knight.

Batman: "I don't need help".

Scarecrow: "Not my diagnosis".

Faux Batman: "What gives you the right, what makes you different from me"?

Batman: "I'm not wearing hockey pads"!

Those and other lines got me to the race track then I came back into consciousness and realized I only had about half a mile left. I stopped thinking and continued until I hit the door. I hit it pretty hard. That is when the hangover started. I was feeling like I wanted to take off work, I couldn't even stand for the second half of my shower, my whole body was heavy. I drank some water, ate some fruit, and got ready for work. I figured it was going to be the longest day EVER and it was until about 4:30 when I ate dinner and started this blog. That is when I realized how much I could push myself with depleted sleep, Oh yeah I ran 8 miles ...ehh not bad.

So what have I learned and what is the point of this story you ask...

-Get a good nights sleep

-Know where and how far your running

-Take off work t0 Re-UP if you can

-Every once in a while, leave your comfort zone.