Mission Accomplished

Headed to Bradbury this morning for 18 miles. I was disappointed to find I'd forgotten my Fuel Belt. I had the bottles and GUs, but not the actual belt; I've been leaving it in the car and just assumed it was there. Oh well, just would have to stop back at the car periodically.

There were still lots of bikers camped out from the previous day's 12 hr race. At first I was worried that the race was actually today. I wasn't in the parking lot long when Blaine and Erin pulled in. Erin was planning on running on her own to do her own pace. Blaine was letting me call the shots, since there's no way I'd be able to run his normal pace.

We headed out on the Bruiser course, but planned on skipping the Island loop and the O (mainly because that type of running is what really aggravates my sore foot). The bike course was not picked up. It took me twice ducking under the tape they had across the trails realize I should just bust through.

Blaine volunteered to put my keys in his Nathan pack that he just won at the Bruiser. When the conversation lulled we could hear them jingling, but not to worry; There was very little time when either Blaine or I weren't talking!

Our first loop showed on both our Garmins as right about 7.5 miles. I was happy to get to my GU and Gatorade and the outhouse. Didn't take long and we headed back out on the same course. This time my Garmin said 15.25 miles when we got back while Blaines said 15.4. Hmmmm....

Erin had finished up and was in the car waiting. She got in 9 miles. Nice. So I said bye to them. Thanks, Blaine! The miles just zoomed by.

Before heading back out I pretty much downed an entire 24 oz of Gatorade with another GU. I had gotten a little dehydrated. I also changed into a fresh sports bra and shirt. All that felt really good, but gave my foot time to get stiff (oh, I'd forgotten to mention that I twisted it pretty good early into the 2nd lap). So the next miles (I went by what my Garmin read to make sure I got in 18, but probably did a good amount more since I think the first loop was short) were pretty slow. When I finally got the ankle working, I realized my stomach was unhappy with that much Gatorade all at once.

It may sound like it didn't end well, but, in some ways I like the stretches of discomfort. Well, I like working through them. I was happy to get back to the car. I was even happy to stick my foot into a bucket of ice water - something I usually hate.