Weekend run

So, on Sunday I decided I had to log 5+ miles be it running, walking, or barely moving my feet. I thought, since it was going to be a long run that I would go do it on the track around the football stadium at good ole ESU (Go Hornets!) since that's better on the joints than concrete. My hubby is a big soccer fan and there's a league in my town that has games every Sunday. So, brilliant me, said to hubby "drop me off at the stadium and pick me up after the game". We made a specific route for me to start walking home by and he would pick me up wherever he found me.

So, I slathered on the sweatproof 45 spf and filled my water bottle with ice and we went. I figured, the longer I was at the track, the less I'd have to walk home (game started at 11, two 45 minute halves, a 15 minute halftime, 10 minutes for him to talk to his friends about what they did right/wrong and then 10 minutes to drive across town), so I wasn't in any rush. I decided to walk a warm up mile. My muscles have been getting tight during my runs, so I wanted to get them ready for the run by stretching them once I was warmed up. I was feeling great. The temperature had gone down about 15 degrees since the day before and clouds had rolled in so it wouldn't heat up as much as the past week.

So, the thing about running on a track is that, like a treadmill, it's kind of boring. You're just running in circles. It's better on your body, but ugh! And then you have to keep count of how many laps you did. So, I decided to make it easier, I would turn around and run the opposite direction every mile so that I'd only have to count as high as four.

By the end of the mile warm-up I was feeling good. Ran mile two and three great! I find I feel like I overheat a lot and so at the start of mile four I walked a lap and cooled down a bit (but told myself I'd have to do a lap of sprint/walk to make up for it in my cooldown mile). By the start of the 5th mile, my water was almost gone (the ice had melted long ago) but I thought, the cooldown mile will be good and I won't be as hot.

With the water in my bottle gone, I started looking everywhere for a water fountain. This is the university's football stadium, so there should be one somewhere right? I took detours around the track trying to find a fountain. I went up the stadium, no fountain. I tried the bathrooms, locked. I found the football offices and woohoo the doors are open! But, while the temporary a.c. blast is nice, no water. I tried the door to the football locker room and it was open, I peaked in with my eyes half covered, still no water from what I could see and I wasn't brave enough to go all the way in. Must not have been that thirsty right?

I continued my second to last lap and I'm just walking along and on one wall of the stadium I saw a tiny little metal thing on the wall. Could it be a fountain? I decided to sprint to it and find out. It's a fountain! I'm all excited. The football guys need water, so of course there's got to be water for them. I'm sweating and gross, my mouth is dry, but I know I'm getting water. I turn the handle and... nothing. ARGH!!!

I thought to myself, okay, I'm just not going to think about it. I look at my hand and my fingers are pruned. I think that's pretty gross. I can't get water and my fingers look like they've been in water all day because I'm sweating so much. (Actually, in a gross way that's kind of cool too.)

As I leave the track, I think, wow! In total I did 6.25 miles! That's great! That's nearly a quarter of what I need for Disney (oh, yeah, did I mention I finally signed up to run Disney? YAHOO!) and I'm feeling pretty good. I did walk and learned I need to buy a bigger water bottle, but I did the farthest distance I have to date. I'm thinking it's about 1:00 and so Hubby should find me soon, so I start walking, trying not to think about water. I'd drink a ton when I get home.

I left the track and passed by a building - campus safety. I go in and right inside the door are soda machines, but I don't have any change on me! It's in the car which Hubby has! Argh! So, I found a bathroom, and as gross as it seems, I filled my water in the sink in there. It was warm. It was straight from the tap. It was from a public restroom. But I think it was the best tasting water I've had in 15 years.

It is about 2.5 miles from the stadium to my house. I was hoping not to have to walk the whole thing. By now my feet were sore, my shirt was soaked and I had long lost all that sweatproof SPF. Hubby found me on the walk before I reached home, but I had already walked almost 1.75 miles of the distance. So, that makes almost 8 miles for the day. But, I did it, and that feels great!