Weekend High

I had a wonderful fabulous kind of weekend that today has left me feeling refreshed, encouraged and excited about life.  These are the best kinds of weekends to have.  Sure, it wasn’t perfect because whenever are they? But it was pretty good and I’ll take it.  Lots of things of note occurred and I will try and do my best to recap and do them justice.

Friday night spur of the moment I decided that after work I was stopping for hair dye because this last week in particular I have been pretty annoyed with my hair.  I am a fickle Gemini you see and thus instantly decide I want something completely different. I have realized for a while now that while I don’t mind my hair cute in a bob cut that ultimately it does not make me feel all that feminine.  When I had my extensions in I loved them, but they were a lot of work to maintain. When I took them out I had a feeling of freedom with my hair. It was so light and easy to manage.  This lasted for a while, but then I missed my long pretty hair.  The first step was to dye my existing hair back to blond. 

 Friday night I dyed the hair and then got out the extensions that have been tucked away and spruced them up.  I was hoping to sneak in some time Saturday to get them put in.  I had to wake up pretty early Saturday to go do the 5k with my sister and brother in law.  I was just going to walk/run with my sister, mostly to encourage her and totally for fun.  The course ended up being incredibly hilly. So much so that I would actually call it a hike not a run.  But nonetheless, it was pretty around a lake.   I am happy that my sister even wants to attempt these things with me and thus I am willing to work towards encouraging her.

After the race, I went home and decided this was the time that I was going to get my hair extensions in. Suddenly it was the most important thing I could do.  I know, crazy wild hair I had.  But it’s true. I needed it done suddenly.  Saturday was my anniversary but this just couldn’t wait.  So I called and 3 was the earliest so I took it. I got it done and then wasn’t home until about 6:30.  We kind of missed the movie show times so instead we decided to go out for dinner. 

We went to Olive Garden and I got pasta and breadsticks and soup and a margarita.  All very delicious.  Nice time with my husband.  I called it carb loading for the half yesterday.  Not sure I really need to carb load but it’s a nice thought anyway.   I actually felt really good Saturday night.

The funny thing is, the moment I put my hair extensions in, I instantly feel like a girly girl.  Somehow I feel so much better about myself and everything seems better than it was a short time before. It’s crazy. Like when I put the hair in, I want to dress up and get my nails done, etc.  My confidence goes thru the roof.  I guess this is a good advocate for having long hair for me.  I walk with more swagger than I normally do.  Not in a conceited way but in a self-confident way.  I feel pretty.  And who doesn’t want to feel pretty? Everyone no matter what the circumstances or conditions are, deserve to feel their best.   Apparently long hair does it for me.

Sure I ate too much at Olive Garden but I didn’t care, and I felt so good it didn’t matter at all. We came home and I got stuff together and ready for the half.  Oh, the half. This is a whole giant thing all by itself.  Normally the beginning of June in Oregon isn’t as crazy hot as it was this weekend.  Normally you’d be pretty safe scheduling a race at 9 AM. Although this is late in any book for a half marathon.  Really late.  I’ve had them start at like 6:30 or 7 fairly consistently.  But mostly no later ever than 8 AM.  Not sure why someone thought 9 AM was perfect, but alas, it was 9 and it was already in the high 70’s when 9 AM rolled around.

Here’s the problem, this race was literally 4 miles from my house.  Closest half I will ever run.  In being so close I got to sleep in which was nice, but in doing that did not actually allow me enough time to properly wake up before running.  When I have to drive for a race this gives me lots and lots of time to adjust and wake.  Not so much.  This was mistake 1.  Mistake 2 came at like 8:30 when I popped WAY to many allergy pills and Advil before the run.  It was hot and I have crazy miserable allergies and I was terrified that running outside was going to be torturous. Like nose dripping, eyes watering, can’t stop sneezing kind of terrible.  So I pill loaded.  Didn’t think too much of it. 

The first 1.5 miles of this course was thru grass and then loose gravel rock.  And It was already hot.  The first bit I was going so much slower than I wanted to go.  It wasn’t fun.  I was already sweating and going slow and I realized this was in fact going to be an agonizing race.  My tummy was a little upset but I didn’t think much of it.  The heat was making hard physical effort nearly impossible.  At mile 2 I threw up.  Like a throw up burp in your mouth.  I know, it’s gross, but it’s the reality of life.  The meds were not affecting me well and it was taken too close to vigorous activity and clearly I knew there was a problem at this point.  But whatever. Not fun.  But as soon as my feet hit pavement I felt better, or grateful to be out of loose ground.  So much harder to run on rock. 

Mile 1.5-3 were totally fine.  Mile 3 started what was literally a 3 mile ascent upward. Nothing giant crazy, but a constant 3 mile uphill climb.  This slowed the pace WAY down on top of being crazy hot.  I started to wonder how freaking long was this half going to take me? Up I climbed at what seemed like a snail pace, but I kept going.  When I got to about mile 5 there was a nice gentleman outside his house watching and offered to let us run thru the sprinklers in his yard.  I took him up on the offer. I literally ran into his grass, and stood in front of the sprinkler letting it get all over me, bending down and cupping water in my hand and splashing it on my face.  The temperature was rising and it was brutal.  This seemed to help and I felt relief for this opportunity.

At the top of a hill, right around mile 6 was a water station where I drank and drank more little Dixie sized cups of water.  And then I dumped water over me.  And then I was off again.  What followed was blissful.  Miles 6-9 were a slight gradual descent downhill.  All those last 3 miles we spent going up, went down.  It was magical.  It was probably some of the nicest 3 miles I have ever ran.  And I felt really good.  Yes, I was hot. But I also felt comfortable and happy.  It was a nice country course.  I was primarily alone which was weird but at times nice too.  The course was well marked and the mile markers were pretty dead on with my watch which made me happy.  Overall I felt great at this point.

My body had clearly adapted to the heat which was good.  Although I mean it was still hot. But early on I just accepted this was going to be a slow half for me. The factors weren’t going to allow for anything different.  So I just went with it and embraced it.  And low and behold running at a 11 minute mile pace was very comfortable.  Nothing hurt.  I felt good.  Miles 9-11.5 or so were fine.  Mostly ran by myself.  No one in front of me, no one behind me.  The course was fortunately well marked and I never felt like I was lost.

At mile 11.5 we came back to where we started from and entered into that final 1.5 miles of loose rock and grass.  Yuck.  But at this point I was close to being done and the temperature had definitely made its way into the mid 80’s and it was scorching.  Every single water station I drank and drank and dumped and dumped on me.  And that really did help.  I definitely slowed down a lot on that last 1.5 mile stretch, but it was okay.

And the thing is all the last while I felt like my body was doing great, holding up perfectly and that I had more in me. Despite the heat I felt like I could run more. This pace was great.  And this gave me so much confidence for a full marathon.  That if I slowed down to 11 minute miles I felt like I could keep running a lot farther.  I crossed the line at like 2:27 something.  Not great, but not awful.  It was really too hot to be running.  But I did it, I survived, which was a far cry from the first mile where I didn’t know how on earth I would survive.  But I did.

I crossed the finish line and got my medal and some water and some food and we sat for a while.  But the most shocking thing of all was that I felt super great.  I didn’t feel exhausted. Everything felt loose and limber and I felt amazing. I actually think my marathon training was in full swing, helping me out. This was the first time that running 13 miles (even in these awful conditions) felt so comfortable.  My body was used to the wear and tear of the mileage.

We stopped at Jamba Juice because I was excessively thirsty more than anything post run. And at Target for doggy treats and then headed home. I ate some random stuff.  Some more random stuff, but nothing too terrible. No crazy binging.  Chris was exhausted. He had not been training.  I felt so freaking good I can’t even explain it. I showered and cleaned up but just wasn’t tired actually.  Eventually I decided I wanted to go get some clip in extensions for my hair. Some bright colors.  I would never dye my hair bright red or pink even though I think it’s cute.  But now that I had the long hair back I could get some of those fun little clips that come in and out and add some streaks to my hair.  So I decided to just get in the car and off to Sally’s Beauty Supply I went.  I got both red and pink and was playing with them.

Yes, as Chris slept on the couch, as the heat rose to unbearable levels, I took selfies.  I couldn’t get over how great I felt after running a half and how happy I felt with my long hair.  It’s the little things in life.  So I took these photos.

And I was impressed by my lovely calf muscles. These are runner’s calves.  Hard earned. Best muscle in my body, and I love them.  Yes, sometimes I indulge excessively in selifes.  I do hope it doesn’t make me seem entirely vain but it’s a real concern.   It’s like I felt so good with everything in my life post this weekend that it gives me a generalized happy attitude today.

I love myself in a way that I haven’t in months. Maybe it’s the hair? Maybe it’s finally feeling a self-acceptance. Maybe its running a half that should have destroyed me, but made me feel so great.  Maybe it’s because I felt not an ounce of sore post run.  Overall I just feel good.  And I’m excited and ready to tackle this week as a result. Asides from the Olive Garden indulgence I had a pretty good eating weekend.   I ended yesterday with a total of 1,880 calories consumed which isn’t crazy considering I burned 1,450 running.  I feel like things are going in the right direction on all levels.

Between Monday and Thursday I have to get in 3 runs on my plan.  1 3 miler and 2 4.5 milers, so a total of 12 miles.  I can do that.  Tonight I am supposed to run 3, but we will see how I feel.  I might do more, I might just stick to the 3.  I will go to the gym tonight thru Thursday and then Friday is rest day and a day off from work as I have to head to Seattle on Friday for the Rock N Roll race. Packet pick up Friday with the run being Saturday.  So it’s going to be a short week for me.

Tonight I will run and then definitely lift something of some sort.  Need to get in a couple decent lifting sessions this week too.  Busy girl. But right now I am still runner’s high.  Oh, its crazy hot out today too as well. Going to be hot all week, but I do love the sun!  Hope everyone is having a great Monday. I sure am!