Running for Good: 10 weeks and counting...

To my two, perhaps five (at most) blog readers, I apoligize for my much delayed post. I know you were getting delerious in your anticipation. Also, I have decided to stop the letters posts. I was hoping to eventually spell something amazing, although a quick run down of my letters last week made me realize I was significantly lacking in the vowel department, and those are hard to come by without sounding ridiculous (hence the reach in the O... post last week).

Moving on... this week's 15 miler was less than stellar, although I am happy to say it is complete. It all began with a pretty significant amount of snow fall on Friday (sadly, not resulting in a snow day):

But Saturday morning I was ready to go in my new complete ninja outfit (don't worry, I had several more layers on for the actual run):

When we arrived at our running destination, the trails looked like this:

This was the good part of the trails (and actually taken after the run, when the snow had melted significantly). There were portions of the trail covered in 3 inches of snow, and portions where the only tracks we saw were our friends the geese. By about mile 3 the outside of my right knee was really hurting me, but I was trying my best to power through with positive thoughts and long, distracting stories with Lauren. I doubted myself several times, but Lauren kept me going, through excruciating pain. Until mile 5 or so, at which I almost fell to the ground in pain. After a short walk, I decided I had to do this and was determined to catch up with Lauren (who was now far ahead of me). I powered through the first half, and the second half was better, despite a few killer pains. Anyway, I'm really minimizing the pain here because the details are boring, however, I am now confident that if I made it through 15 miles of that pain, and these trails (resulting in cold, wet, icyness from the knees down) I know I can finish the marathon! And I would like to say a huge thank you to Lauren, as I would have quit three miles in if it wasn't for her.

I think I may have iliotibial band syndrome, a minor running injury which can be treated with stretches, icing, ibuprofen, and rest. I am planning to do some cross training instead of running during the week, and hopefully I will be back on course for 16 miles on Saturday (without Lauren I might add!).

I would like to add that I tried a new running pseudo-food this week: Clif Shot Blocks. They are my favorite thus far, and actually tasted delicious and seemed to keep me running in my hour of need. They also come in fabulous flavors, like Cran-Razz (which I have yet to try, I had Strawberry).

Here there are several awesome running foods, drinks, and pseduo-foods included. I also enjoy Jelly Belly sport beans (in Breast Cancer Supporting variety - just for you mom!). My post long run food is always trail mix and gatorade. In the future (mid-run) I will be trying the Clif Shot gel pictured here. I would like to note that the Clif Shot Blocks and the Clif Shot Gel, are both conveniently gluten free! :)

Oh, and here is a picture of my most recent purchase of capri tights (thanks to several Dicks gift cards for my b-day) with a super-secret pocket made for running pseduo-food: