Back In The Saddle

Do you know that I once got chauffeured home by Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith after a half marathon on Cape Cod?

I am indeed back in the saddle again.  The last couple weeks have been disruptive to my long runs but I banked 18 miles/29km on Sat and I didn’t feel like dying at the end.  Maybe I should have run harder?

I had every intention of being diligent in my training while in Calgary.  Intention.  Little Miss Organized (a name I seldom go by) was going to arrive on a Saturday night to my bro’s empty house, have a leisurely sleep in on Sunday and run 17 miles before the Cowtown weather dropped to minus a million. (Where’s a chinook when you need one?).  Anyway I wasn’t feeling 100% but I was off to a good start Sunday with my morning coffee and route planned on google maps.  I was even going to run through the zoo in an attempt to have a flashback to this time last year training in Botswana.

It started off well as I headed down 14th to Bow Trail, then chugged on my way along the river to Edworthy Park.  On my google map it looked like I would stay on a path hugging the river the whole way but I ended up on this winding upward path (hill training – check) that was fairly secluded by trees and not well traveled that day.  I remember thinking it was one of those settings that you see on movies right before a character gets taken out.  Hmm.  Nothing like a bit of fear to light a fire under one’s ass.

Of course it was fine, except for the growing sensation that something in my system was not quite right.  I tried to blow it off as some extended from of post-call gut-rot hanging on since Friday morning (some of you know what I mean).  Just run through it.  Or maybe I was dehydrated.  So I made it across the river around Shaganappi Trail (why doesn’t every city have a street called Shaganappi?) and got some water at a little cafe and it was downhill – figuratively – from there.  I did start running after my refreshment but I never really got back on track.  When I got to around 9 miles, I thought I might toss my cookies, so I cut it short, walking the last 2 miles back to Matt’s.  You got to know when hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.  Know when to walk away, know when to run…

I ended up back in bed in a fetal position with chills and aches all over for the next day and a half.  My Little Miss Organized plan to head up to the NW to see my Daly cousins and Matt & Lisa (meeting Robin!) slithered away.  The furthest I made it was downstairs to drain the ginger ale supply and watch a few bits of the Oscars between fleeting moments of consciousness.  WHY ON VACATION, YOU VIRUS? WHY NOT TAKE ME FOR A COUPLE SICK DAYS OFF WORK?  By mid week I was nearly back to status normal (thankfully allowing Banff to be a go) and by the following (wedding) weekend, Party Jess was in the house.

Like I said, the second weekend was also a no-run with the wedding but I’m back in motion now and feeling strong.  The weather is starting to trend to Spring making everything soaked, but at least not frostbitten.  April 18th is approaching…