we were humbled

after recovering from one of those 48 hour headache/migraines, i've lived to tell the tale of how two runners (jennifer and i) were humbled last sunday. we took a run at el morro where tyler did all his training for the big 50 miler. he thought we should get used to an intense trail with lots of hills. he gave us a map and mapped out a 5.5 mile run for us. just stay on bommer and turn when you get to big bend. left at the first fork, right at the other two. sounds pretty easy right? it wasn't. we were running and running and running. walking up the big hills. out of breath at the top of the hills and thankful for flat land and downhills. running low on water. hmm. it sure seems like we've gone a lot further than 2.75 miles, doesn't it? so when we get to a t in the road, we're confused (and tired and concerned and really hot). so i text tyler. "turn around. you went too far," he responded. so we turn around, and about an hour later, jennifer exclaims, "BIG BEND!?" pointing at the sign marker in the road. whoops. turns out we did a whopping 8 miles by the time it was all over.

here are some positives and negatives (i'll start with the negatives so we end on a happy note):

we ran out of water and it was a hot day - over 80 degrees which is warmer than normal for a november day in orange county. easy lesson: pack more water next time.

my knees were really really sore. so sore, that up until last night, i was worried i might have done some damage. it's mostly my left knee, but thankfully, it's beginning to feel more like regular muscle soreness.
we had to walk a lot of it because of all the hills. we're talking big hills here, people. so i got home feeling a bit defeated. now on to the positives...

on this note, tyler insisted that walking is part of trail "running." that it's not smart to run up the hills because you'll over-exert yourself and have a harder time on the rest of the trail. that made me feel better.

along the way, he sent some really encouraging text messages that came just at the right time. among them were, "Walk if you have to. Listen to your body. The goal is to keep moving forward;" "I'm so proud of you two;" and finally, "This is inspiring for me."

"Excuuuuse me," said jennifer. "he inspired all of this!" she added. i agreed.

okay. so now i'm starting to feel really proud of our trek on sunday. yes, we went much further/longer than we planned and it hurt a little, but we made it out alive and feeling pretty good (aside from the terrible headache and sore knees, of course). i should add that jennifer was tired afterwards but felt great the next day. we are so thankful we did this because now we feel like we know what to expect on sunday. 9k here we come. piece of cake.

xo,

jessica