SEVEN BABAY!

Two weeks ago I tried running in Playacar (cement roads) and suffered and blew up horribly. I posted at Daily Mile and the consensus was that I was probably dehydrated. It was a warm day that day and I had no electrolytes with me - just a scoop of Cytomax before I left home. I remembered that around 6 miles I was trying to run and my hamstrings, from my ass to my ankle began to cramp up so I stopped. I felt really awful afterwards, I've run 10Ks so I was pretty sure it was physically possible but I was really wondering if I'd ever be able to run anything longer than a 10K. Also, my (Dr. Google-diagnosed) Morton's neuroma reared its UGLY and DEAFENING head around 5 miles and I was DYING from the pain, so that made it really hard to run also.

So today I had another 7 mile run to attempt. I honestly had no idea if it was even possible, but I was going to try. I took a camera out, a waterbottle with water and a prepared bottle of Poweraid. I've got to say, i was loaded down for the first .5 mile. It was COLD this morning - 84F with 48% made for a really cool start. I wore shorts, dryfit shortsleeve and long sleeve over it. I have to thank Angela, one of my neighbors for muling down some running stuff for me. I got 4 Nike Tempo shorts and 5 dryfit shirts off Ebay and now I feel like a REAL runner. Before I was using the boys cotton shorts and Tshirts.

Took off the long sleeve at about 1.5 miles in. This was almost 3 complete out-and-backs of JanTen and I'm shocked at how lovely the run was. Up to the 5 mile point I was still wondering if I'd make 7. Used the Asics and loosened the forefoot laces and had burning ball-of-foot only around 5.5-6 miles and then It Went Away! I couldn't believe it. I've NEVER had that pain LEAVE during a run and now I"m really encouraged that maybe I can run long runs!

I'm really so psyched I actually made the distance after failing horribly last time. the weather and electrolytes really made a difference. I barely made my last (Friday 4 mile) run but today I totally could have gone longer. I had a bottle of Poweraid the first 5 miles and then switched over to water. No idea of my max HR but I finally felt like I was settling into a pace somewhere around 4 miles and I really never looked at my watch for splits or HR info. It was an AMAZING run. I could get used to running in low humidity. :)

I brought a camera along and tried to take some pics as I ran...