DAY 271
Isn’t he cute? This little dude is why we went on a six-hour road trip on Saturday up to the Canadian border. He’s from B.C. and his breeder brought him down so we could take him home with us. I didn’t know when I’d be ready for a new dog after AJ’s death, but one look at the picture of this guy and I knew I was.
His name is Levi, sort of a play on the New Orleans levee because his AKC name is Dorado’s Who Dat? He was born on Super Bowl Sunday.
But we weren’t really ready for the puppy-toddler combo. Yikes. He’s a pretty good pup, though, and all the dogs are getting along really well. Lucy and Annie are wiped out. So are we.
He woke us up every two hours Saturday night/Sunday morning on the dot (seriously) to go potty, and a couple times in between the 2-hour intervals.
DAY 272
That’s why I was super tired on Sunday morning and not looking forward to a solo 16-miler. Plus, I was still not 100%. Every time the puppy would finally quiet down, then I would have a coughing attack. It was pretty frustrating. I probably got a total of four hours of sleep, and they were not consecutive hours.
Luckily, Mr. T was fine with letting me go later in the day. God bless him. Almost four hours with a puppy and a toddler.
I drove down to the park that is situated near the middle of the Cedar River Trail, a paved pathway that is typically busy on the weekend and runs along a loud highway. It’s flat and straight and, unfortunately, mostly in the sun. Since, it was warm and sunny out, I wore a tank top. But like a complete dummy, I did not put on sunscreen. I should know better since I had a cancerous mole removed from the area between my shoulder blades when I was in high school. I did wear a hat to protect my face, though.
My plan was for an out-and-back totaling 8 miles, refill my water at the car, go potty, and then head in the other direction for another out-and-back of 8 miles. And I wanted to take it slow: 11-minute pace. That was the plan.
And it wasn’t hard to keep. My legs felt frozen and heavy for the first two miles, and I even felt a little dizzy. Luckily that went away by Mile 4 and the first 8 miles were pretty good. I kept it slow and I felt okay for being tired and a teeny bit still sick.
Then at 7.5 miles, some jerk yelled, “Keep running, fat-a$$!” out of his car. Since there were no other runners around, just bicyclists, I assume he was talking to me. Good thing it only made me want to kick his a$$ and not feel bad about myself. I know what I’m doing. I know how many miles I’m running. I don’t give a $hit about that guy, who had to hurl some insult at me to make himself feel better as he drove away in some POS SUV from 1991.
Anyway, back at the car, I refilled one of my 8-ounce pods and ate a square of PB and J because, once again, I forgot to get GU before my long run. I made a quick stop in the Honey Buckets and then I was off.
I’m glad I decided to go in a different direction for the second 8. First, it was a nice change of scenery. Second, there were more people and, third, there was quite a bit more shade.
The bad part, though, was that this section crosses into downtown Renton and I didn’t feel up for that, so I turned around before four miles knowing I’d have to make up about a mile and a half once I passed my car again. But the fact that I was expecting that, made it okay.
Around Mile 14, I stopped at a drinking fountain, ate my last piece of sandwich and guzzled some water. I refilled both pods and then kept going. I was getting a little hungry, which makes me nervous, but that last sandwich hit the spot and all the water was good, too.
As I passed my car, I cursed myself for not just crossing into downtown so I wouldn’t have to make up the distance and could’ve just been done!
Finally, at 15.3, I turned around and headed for the car. I was in almost the same spot as where I was when the a$$hole yelled at me and at about three hours of running, when a woman on a bike coming toward me, smiled and said, “You’re doing really good!”
“Thanks!” I waved at her. Well, it was more of a hand-flick since I was pretty tired. She must’ve seen me sometime earlier. Oh, it was so energizing. She totally helped me finish.
Back at the car, I stretched, wolfed a banana and a Special K protein bar and gulped the rest of my water.
At home, I filled the soaking tub with cold tap water again. This time, I wore a sweatshirt and two pairs of socks. I made it 10 minutes and it worked again!
4/18/10 – 16 Miles – 3:06:00
Average pace: 11:37
Mile 1: 11:01
Mile 2: 100:01
Mile 3: 11:26
Mile 4: 11:35
Mile 5: 11:25
Mile 6: 11:25
Mile 7: 11:24
Mile 8: 11:19
Mile 9: 11:36
Mile10: 11:10
Mile 11: 11:35
Mile 12: 12:18
Mile 13: 11:54
Mile 14: 12:02
Mile 15: 12:24
Mile 16: 12:16
Sunday night, Mr. T sent me to get Chinese takeout. $50 later and the fact that the restaurant put four fortune cookies in the bag, I figured out that maybe I went a little overboard. “Next time,” I told Mr. T, “Don’t send the girl that ran 16 miles to go get dinner.”
Also, 100! One hundred virtual running buddies! Welcome! I’ve been bad about blog reading the past few days because of the new puppy and being sick, etc. Hope to make it around and catch up this week some time! And I hope everyone had a good run at Boston!
18 comments
Cute new puppy!Great job on the 16 solo miles. I'm impressed! I love how a nice comment can really brighten up a day (or a run).
Very cute puppy! What a jerk that guy was!
Great job on a solo 16. Funny about the chinese food. I always over order like that after a super long run! What's next on the schedule? 18?
arggggg. that kind of comment always makes me unreasonably angry… sounds like you took it well. my guess is that guy couldn't run 1 mile. Great job on 16, a distance that shows your true grit as a runner. very impressed you tackled it solo. Bravo!
That puppy is adorable and you are a brave woman to have a puppy and toddler!!I have had an A hole yell the same thing. Jealous jerks but ladies that cheer you on are like gold!Good job sticking it out!
The puppy is adorable!!! Will he be a running buddy? Mine are not well behaved enough they like to stop right in front of me sending me sprawling :PThat guy is an A$$ I bet he couldn't run for 5 minutes and he is denigrating you, grrrr! I did the soos creek trail yesterday, no traffic, had to cross the road 3 times but no cars and lots of people out, I think it is my new favourite trail. Goes from the Renton/Kent border to Lake Meridian, alternating sunny and shady along the way.
16 miles solo! Your a bad a$$ 🙂 Way to go! And your puppy has stolen my heart. Love it!!!
Look at you, breaking the 3-hour mark and knocking out 16 miles all alone! How awesome is that??And as far as jerk-off eff-face, I'll go up there and kick that guy's @ss for you. What a degenerate, a complete douche. Seriously, insulting you for no good reason?? Crap like that just gets under my skin. Grrr…
Congrats on your run! That takes some serious dedication to do it solo… 🙂 Hopefully that will be me in a few months while I'm training for my first marathon. Glad to have helped you to 100. I only signed up a couple of weeks ago when I was contemplating doing a blog myself and yours is one that I can totally identify with. Thanks for the inspiration to run and blog!
Wow, 16 miles… awesome!! And holy what a jacka** in the SUV. You took it better than I would have, I would have been steaming about it for the next 8 miles.
Pup waking you up in the middle of the night? It is like having a baby again :)Congrats on a good run and not paying attention to jerks who are probably just fat, stupid (obviously) and jealous.Ever so often I shout encouragements at runners because I know how great that feels when somebody cheers me on.
Great job on your 16 miler…wow!! Considering the lack of sleep, I am so impressed. But, the puppy is definitely adorable :)…and yeah, that guy is a major jerka$$!
OMG look at that puppy's face!! So adorable. Way to push on through. It's funny I always see people more than once during my runs and I wish they would cheer me on like your new friend did haha.
Congrats on your new pup! So cute!!! Great job on the 16-miler. Don't pay any mind do that dumb-a$$ hollering out the window. He's only jealous!
Outstanding Kerrie! You know, if you can do 16 solo miles, mentally you are ready for the *big* race…
Love the new pup! He's a cutie!The idiot who yelled the insult at you will get what's coming to him. Karma's a bee-atch (did I just sort of quote Snoop Dog?)! Wouldn't it have been awesome if he had gotten a speeding ticket or flat tire on the way home? Wouldn't it have been even more awesome if you had run past him while he was getting a speeding ticket or flat tire?!
HURRAY FOR LEVI!! He's so cute!! Can I meet him? (And Annie and Lucy too?). :)That makes me so incredibly angry that someone could yell something like that. Seriously. What a eff-tard. I'm sure he couldn't even run 50 feet without falling over and dying. I'm glad it made you want to kick some a$$ though…you know my mantra…get mad at it!:) You are awesome, Kerrie.
OMG! The SUV guy is a total butthole!!! I gasped when I read that! Ignorance is amazingly obvious, isn't it? Now to happier stuff.. Levi is adorable! GREAT job on the long run. Congrats on the 100! THANK YOU for the More.com shout-out. I seem to be stuck at 63 this week…*sigh* I appreciate you sharing this special request with your readers! Also, thanx for comment on Wed Winners. I'd love to feature YOU, friend. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll send you the questions. I'm always amazed at how you handle family and running and share it with us. Powerful stuff. Oh, and I agree: The girl that runs 16 shouldn't have to go get the darn food! lol Just noticed your twitter badge tonight and recently starting tweeting again… going to stalk (i mean “find”) you now.. hee heeHUGS from Orlando!P.S. Such good news about Zoe!!