Running all over Cabot

Running has brought me many benefits but one in particular that I have noticed lately is it has taught me more about the town I live in. Before I started running I really only knew a few neighborhoods in Cabot and of course the main drag etc but now I feel like I have really explored every nook an cranny of this little town, either through running or biking. It sure makes planning a long run in Cabot a lot easier.

Thursday morning I met Jane and Michele at the Community Center for a good fast run! We ran our usual route which has a few small hills and a couple long inclines. I don't have my Garmin and I don't remember the splits but our average pace for 5 miles was 9:38.
Thursday afternoon I met Vicki, Gabby and Karen at the Community Center for hill repeats. Vicki has been training for a trip to Lake Tahoe, her hip has really been hurting her for a few months now and she knows she is going to probably have to walk the hills quite a bit so that was her plan for this workout. Gabby joining us was a very pleasant suprise, she called just as I was leaving the house to let me know she was at the Community Center. Jane was also going to join us but work got in the way and she wasn't able to join in the fun. Just as we were headed out for our warm-up Karen found us so we had a nice little group. We had a very easy warm-up and it was great to run with Vicki and have a nice chat. After the warm-up we headed to our hill, it doesn't look like much from a distance but it is long and has a nice steep bit at the end.
Unfortunately after just a few repeats Gabby got to see the dreaded "oop's my stomach" dance in person. I saw some port a potties on the top of the hill but they were behind a fence so I ended up having to run over to the Community Center. Granted it was great to be able to use a real bathroom but for a few minutes I just didn't know if I could make it that far! On my way back to the hill I could see that Gabby was running the hill alone and then I saw Vicki and Karen rounding the tennis courts for there cool down. I ran one or two more repeats and then we all jogged/walked back to the community center together. We said good-bye to Vicki and then Karen, Gabby and I set off to add on a few more miles. We had a nice run it was slow and easy and very chatty!! It was great having Gabby join us a nice change of pace for her and us! I was starting to stress out a little bit the last couple of miles, yeah it was my idea to add on although I had already had an awesome run that morning but once I got past the 5 mile mark I was thinking what am I doing... I have 18 miles on Saturday!! We ended up with 6 miles and I felt like I could have run all night!! In three days I had run 26 miles, not bad considering I skipped Tuesday!

Saturday morning after our long run several of us had volunteered to work the finish line at a Cross Country meet. Brenda was planning on starting at 5:30 but I know my stomach and how it can really slow me down, plus Brenda is just a much faster runner so my plan was to start at 5:00. Jane, Kelly and I met at the Elementary school where the Cross Country Meet was being held. Michele was also starting at 5:00am from her house and we were hopefully going to meet in the middle. Well you know how it goes sometimes things just don't go as planned. I was running a little late so we got a late start and had just started when Michele caught up with us she was just planning on running for about an hour and then she was going to pick up Timmy and they were running the Wing Ding 5K. As we were running along I mentioned to Michele that Rock texted me that the race started at 7:00... well Michele thought it was supposed to be 8:00 and after some texting and internet surfing on my cell phone she got confirmation about the 7:00am start. She had to go and fast!! so we just let her go on ahead of us. It was getting late so we just ran around the school neighborhood a little while until 5:30, I didn't think anyone was meeting Brenda and I didn't want her to start alone. Just as we got back to the parking lot Cindy C. drove up so Brenda had someone to run with after all. We went off on our first big loop which would take us by the high school etc. We were about 4 miles in when my stomach started it's thing, luckily we were also very close to the track adn the port a potties. We made a big loop back to the elementary school and then made our way over to Michele's house where I had stashed an ice chest (one of the reasons I was late) with water and pretzels. We were at 7.19 miles and that was our first nutrition stop... not good!! It was really chilly so we didnt' get as thirsty but we still needed to be drinking!!!
We continuted on back by the high school, community center and Phillip's 66 gas station where I had another pit stop, this time nothing happened but I just felt like I couldn't pass up a real bathroom.. just in case! Now we were headed down first street towards my neighborhood.
Kelly has had a lot going on lately and hasn't really been able to get very many long runs in, add to that a sore throat,chest cold this week welll... you can just imagine this wasn't an easy run for her, but it wasn't until around 9 miles that I realized she was struggling. We started taking walk breaks and then it was decided that when we got to my house we would have Arland give her a ride back to her car at the school. Speaking of Arland there he was running in our direction it was great to see him running and looking so happy, he actually looked like he was floating on air!
By the time we got to my house we were at 11.5 miles, we made a pit stop had some more water and pretzels, along with honey stinger chews and Jane and I said good-bye to Arland and Kelly. I had been hoping we could turn around at my house but we were a little short on mleage so we had to continue on down first street for a little while. Finally we turned around and once again here comes Arland running towards us. He made the comment that we were slow!!! HMPH listen mister it's not nice to tell two girls at 13.5 miles into their 18 mile long run that they are slow!! He ended up running all the way to the end of first street with us and it was nice to have his company even if he was mostly running ahead of us! LOL
Oh a crazy thing was happening to my right leg on this run.. it started fairly early on and it is hard to describe but it was an odd sensation where I would suddenly feel like my leg wasn't there... ok that's no really it but it would kind of buckle under me and it hurt but not a sharp pain more of an annoyance than anything and kind of scary because a coupel of times I thought I was going to fall. It kind of was just an on and off thing and just when I would think oh I havn't had that sensation lately it would happen again.... weird!
I guess we should have run down first street a little farther because we ended up with17.5 miles and we had to run past our cars and back to get that and we decided we were good with 17.5. This run wasn't as great as the 17 miler at the River Trail a couple of weeks ago but it was ok! the last 6 were hard mentally and my legs were feeling like lead but hey we got it done so another long one in the books! Looking back I really did a terrible job with nutriton!! I think for the whole 17.5 miles I had maybe 4 honey stiner chews and a handful of pretzels with very little water... no wonder my legs felt like lead!

Working the finish line at the Cross Country meet was pretty interesting... those kids really put everything into their race and several of them were gagging and collapsing at the finish line. Our job was to keep them in order and then we/I gave them a card to fill out and turn in. I don't know what their times were, I would give them a car with the number/place they finished in and the coach had some kind of handheld timing device. He was at the front of the finishing line and I was in the back so I couldn't see the times.

Michele and Timmy had an awesome time at the Wing Ding 5K...they both won their age group's and Timmy was interviewed by a local t.v. station. Michele stopped at Mountain Mudd on her way to meet us at the school, and she brought coffee back for Jane and I... just what I needed!!
Jane had to leave the Meet early to go teach a Latin dance class at the community center... she is just a ball of energy!!
When we finished our duties at the finish line several of us... Rock, Cindy, Lisa F, Brenda and i went to Emily's for breakfast... for Brenda's birthday breakfast. It was great to get to sit down and relax and hang out with them. They are all very fast runners and I don't get to run with them so I have to hang out with them when they are sitting still so I can join in on the conversations!! Cindy's daughter works at Emily's and she cooked our omelets.. it took a long time to get them but they were delicious!!

When I got home I took a shower called Livia and arranged to meet her and Kylie at Target. It was fun but after about an hour I was really starting to get tired and my feet were hurting! Next we went to "Starbooks" and Kylie and I hung out in the kids section for about an hour while Livia went on for more shopping without us. I took Kylie home and we had dinner and played and overall had a nice evening... but I was starting to fade and she was getting annoyed by my lack of energy. She said all you ever want to do is rest!! It didn't matter how many times I reminded her of all that we had done that afternoon and that NaNa had run 17.5 miles that morning in her head all we had done was rest!! LOL Livia picked her up about 9:45 and soon after I fell into bed!

I had told myself during Saturday's run that I could take Sunday off... afterall I had 43.5 miles for the week but I also told myself that if I felt good when I woke up, no pain etc. that I would go to the elementary school for the 7:00am run. Jane and i had discussed that we would just run with Joan and have a slow easy run......
Instead we started off with Gabby who had come down from Searcy and Brenda and Cindy. Brenda and Cindy pulled out ahead but never too far and Gabby was kind of inbetween for a little bit and then she slowed down and ran with Jane and I. We were running a good pace not blazing but definately not slow and chatting with Gabby. When we finished the long incline at the end of Woody Lane Jane and I slowed down a bit to catch our breath, we didnt' walk just a slow jog, this was where we lost Gabby. She is really a fast runner and should have been with Brenda and Cindy from the beginning but I'm glad we got to have her for a little while.
We did the Cherry route and it has some pretty good hills and long inclines but I felt great the whole time!! I wish I knew what our pace was for the run but my Garmin decided at mile 2 to start beeping at me. It was full and I needed to delete some old laps.. :( The funny thing is we had a discussion about this very thing at breakfast on Saturday and I had mentioned that my new Garmin hadn't given me any problems! OOp's spoke too soon!
Oh well it was a great run and it felt good to be able to run kind of fast the day after 17.5 miles... and even better yet I had a runners high that lasted for HOURS afterwards. I was so energized I went home and starting putting together some storage thingy's I had bought at Target and started reorganizing my closet!

I ended the week with 49.1 miles all of which were run in Cabot... I am looking forward to our next River Trail long run!!