Saturday on the River Trail

As has been my habit the last few weeks I planned on meeting Cheryl Saturday morning to run with the LR Marathon training group.
Kim got back into town this week and she came with us as did Kelly and Michele.
I met the Cabot girls at Team 1 and then we picked Kim up at the Community Center in J-ville.
It was quite a lively trip to NLR 4 girls in one car the conversation was flowing. When we got to the designated meeting spot Cheryl was already there and came over to greet us. She was starting off the run with a headache, never a good start!
When I first got up this morning I had put on running pants and was planning on wearing two long sleeve shirts. Lucky for me not so lucky for him Arland was called out on a car accident. It turned out that the persons involved fled the scene so there was nothing for the FD to do, it was a job for the police. Anyway he got home before I had finished dressing and let me know that it was 53 degrees out side and humid. I immediately changed into a running skirt and a short sleeve tech shirt with a long sleeve over it. WELL when we got out of the car at the River Trail it was NOT 53 degrees!! The wind was howling and it felt pretty chilly. Although it was cold at first I ended up being dressed just right!

There was a huge crowd this morning and people were doing quite a variety of miles. We all took off together and just as we were approaching the only real bathroom on the trail we noticed a lady heading towards it...oh my gosh they were open! At that time I didn't really feel like I needed it, but I try to not turn down a real bathroom when it is avaliable. Kelly headed that way first and then Cheryl and I.
After the break we kind of broke off into two different groups, Kim & Cheryl and Kelly, Michele and I. My goal for this run was to not take any walk breaks.
The first 6 miles I felt great and didn't walk except for a few seconds to get a drink of water. A couple of times Kelly did need a short walk break and Michele and I would keep going just at a slower pace and then we would circle back for her. This worked really well for me and I was able to keep my energy up through most of the run.
On the way to the turn around spot the wind was kind of hitting us sideways, but boy oh boy when we turned around... fierce head wind!! And the way back has a few pretty steep inclines.
A couple of miles after the turn around we were approaching one of the longer/steeper hills on the way back, I have always hated that hill and I have walked it many times. So far this morning I hadn't had to walk any hills and was feeling pretty good about it. But wouldn't you know just as we were approaching that hill my stomach did a flip flop kind of thing and I felt like I needed to use the bathroom. I told the girls... I think Michele thought I was faking it so I wouldn't have to run up the hill!! LOL But I showed her and I did make it all the way up, but at the top I didn't feel so good. Luckily though it calmed down and I was able to keep running. Kelly took a quick break but I just kept going, I looked back once and Michele said "you're good" she knew what was happening. I needed to just keep running as fast as I could to get to the port - a - pottie in case things started going south with my stomach.
Luckily everything behaved and I made it to the port a pottie and was able to resolve the issue.
I heard Kim and Cheryl go by as I was inside...
Once we started running again my Garmin started beeping at me. I didn't have my reading contact in so I asked Kelly to tell me what it was saying, but she couldn't see it either. Finally Michele told me it said something about too much data. It has happened before and I knew it wasn't going to accurately track the rest of the run so I just stopped it.
I really hate when things malfunction with the Garmin in the middle of a run :(
but today I didn't let it get to me.
After the port-a-pottie we only had about 2 miles left, we had run further out than we had to so we were a little ahead on mileage. We were on a stretch of road that kind of connects the River Trail, I was starting to feel a little fatigued, at this point we were all back together. I had been thinking about Gary and Curtis, I had tried to work out a way that we would be able to run together this morning but nothing had been resolved before I left this morning. I had been hoping to see them somewhere along the trail but had just about given up hope when all of a sudden they flew by us on their bikes. Perfect timing!! We arranged to meet at Star Bucks so they headed back in the opposite direction to their car. I was glad that we had run a little further on the way out because it meant that we would get to walk a little at the end. We walked it in and then turned around for Cheryl and Kim, I knew something was wrong because they were too far behind us and then I saw them walking. It turns out that Kim's knee was really bothering her. She thought it might be IT Band issues and was asking Michele questions about it. Michele has battled IT issues off and on for quite a while now and she is a PT so she was the perfect person to ask.

I know this run didn't turn out the way Kim or Cheryl wanted, but it was a really good run for me. Other than the port-a-pottie break I only took two really quick water breaks.
I might not be fast but I am building my endurance and that felt great!
I had a 10:11 avg for the first 7.8 miles. I'm waiting to talk to Kelly to find out what our last two miles were.

Starbuck's pictures to come on the next post.