Gather 'round fellow runners. I want to tell you a story.
Our runner friend Kate has gone and got herself injured because she is a stupid silly girl. How did she do this? you may be wondering. Well...lets just say that she woke up Friday morning with a muscle pull in her lower back. Where it came from, no one knows but she apparently slept pretty rough that night. And lets just also say that instead of doing anything about it, she went out for her intended long run of 13 miles this morning as usual. And imagine, if you will, a runner who had not put much time and thought into preparing for this run, seeing as how it was "only" 13 miles she had to do that day.
Feeling over confident, she stayed up too late with friends the night before, drinking a few beers instead of water so the next morning instead of being properly hydrated and fueled, she was dehydrated with a tad of a hangover stomach. As she slogged through the suffocatingly humid miles, she closed her eyes in a self-pitying whine of frustration and in that blind moment, got tangled up in a tree branch and bit it. Hard.
As chance would have it, she caught herself with her pulled back muscle. She crawled on the grass in pain crying "why God?!" looking around for anyone who would sympathize. Alas, she was alone. She pulled herself up and hobbled the last 2 miles back to her car, bringing her to a measly 7 miles for the day instead of 13.
With her tail tucked between her legs, she sat in her ice bath and denied herself the little chocolate covered donut she had bought herself the day before as motivation for this run. Bagging a run is something our runner friend Kate had never done before and so felt she didn't deserve her reward. She also admitted to being humbled saying, "I will never go out for a run unprepared ever again!" and adding later that yes, the beers were a horribly stupid idea.
And that, my dear friends, is how a planned 13 mile run turned into an actual 7 miles covered. Chin up old girl. Tend to your back and next week will be better.
5 comments:
Oh Honey, I was hoping everyone would learn this lesson after my poker night debacle. I guess we have to learn it for ourselves, and sometimes more than once. Sorry about the back, I hope the ice does the trick. Hang in there!
As I am nursing a back injury, my strong advice is not to tempt fate. And you denied yourself the donut - now that's just plain nuts. You did do 7 miles - that's gotta count for 700-800 calories - go for it! Just like cookies, a good donut can change your life. Or make the rest of the day seem a little more cheery.
Amy
http://blog.runnerslounge.com
Ouch! Two more miles after being reduced to a crawl. You're gutsy.
Rest hard, ice, hydrate, and please eat that donut for the rest of us!
Take care, Kate!
There probably isn't a runner out there that hasn't tempted fate and took off for a run ill prepared. As with everything in life, it isn't about what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you, and by reading the end of your post, it seems like you came up with a plan of attack against not being prepared so the lesson was beneficial.
I would have eaten the donuts justifying it by the fact that I did over half of the planned run so I could eat half of what I planned to eat. Of course, once they were opened I wouldn't want them lying around to temp me so I would NEED to finish them off, for my own good of course! You are a strong woman Kate!
Oh that stinks! But yes, it's a hard lesson to learn, but it's not just the long runs. I didn't prepare well for a short run and it was also not a pretty sight. Sorry. Hope your back gets a rest and you get better.
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