‘success is never so interesting as struggle’ – Willa Cather
Boston Marathon today… tiny bit discouraging realizing that the men’s winner ran a full marathon in the time I’m hoping to run a half…
but watching and reading some of the stories going on surrounding the marathon inspired me as I headed out for my long run today…
Brandon had gone for a run with me yesterday and it was so beautiful and I felt fantastic so I had high expectations for today’s long run…
my one dog and I set out… temperature was just about 20 degrees and there was hardly a breath of wind… beautiful…
about mile 4 I notice some ‘chaffing’ going on in the armpit region… now, new to running, I did not anticipate this… a seasoned runner might have a tube of vaseline or something in their little fanny/water pack… I just had the rape whistle the farmer had got me in case a moose attacks me… that did not help the chaffing at all…
at mile 5, half-way point, when I turned to come back home, I noticed my dog Lacy was in trouble… she is the type of dog that jumps for joy at the sight of snow and you have to lock her in the garage during a blizzard or she’d just lay out in it… this distance running in mid-day heat was not agreeing with her…
it also occurred to me that if a ‘runner’ needed to use the bathroom, there were no options… no Starbucks you could just pop in to… this was one of my worst fears with running… next to the moose trampling me while I blow my whistle…
it also brought up some questions in my mind as to what the farmers themselves do when nature calls and they are in nature…
there had only been two vehicles go past me during the first 5 miles of my run… my father-in-law pulling an auger and one of our hired men following him…
so the thought does cross your mind that perhaps you would have some privacy in the ditch… if it came to that…
but with my luck that is when rush hour would hit the gravel road I was on…
I quickly placed voicemail call and a text to the farmer… just to give him a heads up on some of the events that were going on… in case he wished to intervene and come to my rescue…
(the previous day I had this girl following me on the Gator… would have been far handier)
the text read as such…
‘come get Lacy… bring water and vaseline… I might be in trouble’
he replied…
‘now? what’s going on?’
apparently he had to rush home to get the vaseline as it is not an item he has in the console of his truck… which is probably a good thing…
he showed up when I only had 2 miles of the run left to do…
now, I have never quit a run before… no matter the conditions, everything in me telling me to quit… I have always reached the distance that my training schedule calendar has told me I need to get to…
this was a first… and of all days to quit on a run… Boston Marathon day…
lessons learned… carry more than a whistle in my fanny pack/hydration belt… maybe even get rid of the whistle…
and leave the giant hair ball of a dog home on hot days…
the farmer has told me that he is proud of me for running… yet sometimes I do wonder… what with the lack of energy I have and the only weight loss I have seen so far is what I did have for a bosom has disappeared… and then there are the texts to come rescue me while he is attempting to get everything ready for seeding… there is a certain odour I have… even after a shower… it’s like I never stop sweating during the shower and just keep on stinking even afterwards… I have blisters and callouses all over my feet and I feel like I am 80 years old every morning when I wake up…
made me think, I wonder if Lemi Berhanu Hayle ever had days like I did today… probably, probably… but look at him now… he just won a marathon…
i feed a farmer 
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