Toast

I need to do a wrap up of 2008 and I will soon... but first I have to post about this weekend.

I haven't really posted much lately. I am still running but ever since the Memphis Marathon I have felt broken. My endurance and what little speed I had has really suffered, almost every run feels like a chore. Normally this time of year that would not be so bad but I have another Marathon on Feb. 1st. More on that Marathon later.....

Saturday I had 15 miles on my training plan and we have all gotten pretty tired of running the same routes over and over in Cabot so we decided to head to the River Trail. Jane, Michele and I were running and Bailey was on the bike.
We parked in the River Market and headed over to the public restroom, one of the advantages of starting later meant the restroom was open, which also meant the Boulevard Bread Co. was open so while I used the facilities Michele was in Boulevard bread ordering toast. I'm not sure what she was thinking but she got three orders which is 6 pieces of bread! Jane and I each had one piece but Bailey didn't want any so Michele ate 4 pieces of toast. We started of walking while we were eating the toast but if we had had waited for Michele to finish hers we would have been walking a long time so we started running while she was still eating. I think it took her almost a full mile to finish!
It was a great way to start the run but Michele made the comment that normally we would have already been done with our run and here we were just starting. In the summer we would usually start at 5:30 and it was almost 8:00 when we started on Saturday.
Just thinking that we should already be done made the first few miles a little tough and then the fact that it was really warm about 63 at the start and very very humid which made breathing pretty hard just made it worse. I had worn an old cotton t-shirt to start the run with the intention of throwing it away when I didn't need it anymore. My thought was maybe someone who needed it more than I did would find it. Well it didn't take me long before I got rid of it.. of course later Bailey went back and picked it up!
There were a ton of people on the trail, quite a few were part of the "Winter Running Series" but you could tell a lot of them were people who had probably made new years resolutions to lose weight and exercise not that there is anything wrong with that quite the opposite I loved seeing so many people out but you could really tell the difference just by the way they were dressed!!

Michele really was not "feeling the run" this morning and begged for a walk break at 4 miles and then when we got to the first port-a-pottie she had to stop. Jane and I made the decision to keep going, knowing I would need to stop about 1.5 mile up the trail and that Michele and Bailey would catch up. I was right just before we got to the dog park my stomach did it's thing and I needed to stop. After Jane and I both finished with the port-a-pottie we saw Michele and Bailey were just a little ways behind us. Jane and I started walking thinking they would catch up soon but soon we were running again. I could hear Michele and Bailey behind us laughing and talking and I kept waiting for them to catch up but they never did. A little bit later Bailey comes flying up tires sqealing to let us know that Michele has decided to turn around and go back. My first thought was you are kidding me but then I asked if Michele was ok. Bailey said she was fine she just didn't really want to run anymore. Bailey said she was going to go back with her, I said ok but you are coming back ... right? Bailey said oh sure.......
Well Jane and I carried on we were having a decent run but when we got to the Big Dam Bridge I said let's just walk up it.
When we got to Murray Park I needed another bathroom break and I took the time to send Michele a text message, it said... CHEATER!!. A little bit later she texted back asking where we were. Whenever we would take a walk break I would text her and I let her know we were near the Golf Course. A few minutes later who drove by, yes Michele and Bailey and they are having a grand old time. They asked if we needed anything... crackers.. water... A RIDE??? Ha yes we did but no we weren't going to quit. They drove on turned around came back and started taunting us somemore. We told them to go to Boulevard Bread and tell them to put out the Strawberry jam and to have our coffee waiting for us. Well they were looking at us kind of crazy and then finally they said ummm we're not going to Boulevard we are going HOME!!! I swear that thought never crossed my mind! I just assumed they would go back to Boulevard and wait for us... but no those brats went home and left poor Annette and Jane out in the wilds of Little Rock all by ourselves!!!! Hmmmph!!! BRATS!!

The rest of the run was uneventful... we ran, we talked, we took walk breaks and just really tried to have a no pressure run... just like Bailey and I have decided we are going to have a fun no pressure Marathon.

After the run we went back to Boulevard for our second helping of toast that morning... and of course coffee!
We stopped by Cheryl's house on the way home and I picked up some Avon she ordered for me, it was a nice visit but Jane and I were both covered in salt and felt bad sitting on her furniture!

After a shower I called Kylie to say hi, she asked if I could go to her house and I told her I really needed to clean house so she suggested that I come and pick her up and she would help me clean and then we could play.... how could I resist such an offer??? I did go pick her up but instead of going straight to my house we went to the Community center to watch Alex's basketball game and then did a little shopping. Once we got to my house we did a little bit of organizing but mostly we played. When it was time for me to take her home she said but NaNa all we did was play... LOL!

This morning I was meeting Gabby at the Community Center and she was following me to Dude's Place to meet with Brenda and the girls. Jane was going to run with us but she has been having sinus issues and was not feeling well at all this morning so she texted me to let me know she wouldn't be running.
One good thing I can say about the route this morning was it was new and a change of scenery. It was very warm when we started the run... about 63 degrees and once again very humid! I had on a skirt and short sleeve running shirt and I was really wishing I had worn a sleeveless tank. Gabby ran the first mile with us but since she was doing a longer run she needed to catch up with Brenda and Lisa and soon left us in her dust... she is quite the speedy runner!
Along the route we ran past a grocery store, Michele felt the need to use the restroom so we went in but the lady said they didn't have a bathroom... yeah right, but whatever, so we headed back out. Before we stopped I didn't feel the need to use the bathroom at all but as soon as that lady said no bathroom I knew it was going to happen soon. Luckily a little bit up the road we saw a Church and there were no cars in the parking lot. Michele ran across the grass to check the door.. it was open.. woo hoo!!! We really lucked out no one was around and the bathrooms were very clean!! I did wish I had a couple of dollars so I could leave a donation but unfortunately my pockets were empty.
Thank goodness I was running with Michele and she knew the area really well because when we got to one of our turns there was no street sign but Michele was pretty sure it was the right street and it was because just a few minutes later we saw the girls behind us. They had passed the road and at the time we thought maybe they did it on purpose to add on but I think they just missed the turn. There were a bunch of loose dogs on this road so Michele stopped and picked us up two huge sticks, actually they were more like tree trunks but those dogs stayed away from us! I could tell how far the girls were behind us by how long it took us to hear them yelling at the dogs.
It started raining during the last two miles of the run and I was really wishing I had windshield wipers.. or better yet a hat! The girls were gaining on us and I told Michele I wish they would hurry up and pass us so we could take a walk break!! Michele looked at me and said really? we can walk?? LOL When we hit 5 miles we decided we had had enough running and walked the rest of the way back.
When we got back to the parking lot I could see someone running and realized it was Karen.. I felt so bad, she had come to run with us but had gotten there late and missed us, but I am very proud of her because she ran on her own, luckily we all got back to the parking lot at the same time!!

I hope I get my running self back soon!! I'm tired of every run feeling like a struggle.